


Midnight Hex

by Lilith_Deckerstar



Category: Midnight Texas (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-05-18 18:00:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 51,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14857553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilith_Deckerstar/pseuds/Lilith_Deckerstar
Summary: At first glace Midnight Texas seems like a strange and quiet town but it's actually a haven for the Supernatural and sits on a vail to hell. Gypsy Xlyda tells her grandchildren, Manfred and Eve, to go to Midnight but what they don't know is that something is going to happen in Midnight.





	1. Welcome to Midnight

A.N: this is Eve

 

 

* * *

Manfred looks out the window of his penthouse taking in the view of Dallas when his sister walks up behind him.

"C'mon, Manny put a shirt on. Rachel will be here any minute." Eve said then she tossed him the shirt she had in her hand.

As Manny caught the shirt, he heard a knock on the door and knowing who is knocking. He put the shirt on, he then opened the door to see it was Rachel, a good and longtime client of his.

"Rachel, my god! You get younger everytime i see you." Manfred said

"Oh, shut up!" Rachel said before she walked into the penthouse.

"Rachel, it's so good to see you again. Love the hair." Eve said

Rachel walks up to eve and gives her a hug.

"Thank you, sweetie. And i see you took my advice and got your hair cut a bit, and you look gorgeous." Rachel complemented 

"Thank you." Eve said

Manfred and Rachel hug and do a kiss on the cheek, Rachel takes off her jacket which Manfred takes for her.

"Mm, nice." Rachel complemented on the room.

"Always the best for you, darling. Um, I'm sorry. I should have told you on the phone when we set up the appointment. Um, my fee has gone up." Manfred said

"Terribly sorry that we didn't tell you, Rachel." Eve said

"Well, after all this time you two should that you're worth every penny." Rachel said with no bother of it

They two then led Rachel into another room where they had set everything up. Rachel and Manfred took a seat at the small table while Eve lit some candles and took a seat at the edge of the bed and begun to read her book.

Rachel then handed Manfred a wedding band, and nodded her head signaling her was ready, Manfred clasped his hands over it and closed his eyes.

"I want to see you... Show yourself. Harold, make yourself known. Rachel's here. She wants to talk to you." When Manfred finished, he opened his eyes and looked at the ring in his hand before looking up at Rachel. "He's here.

Manfred chuckled before saying "He wants you to know he thinks the new haircut is hot."

Rachel then laughed at what she was told. "thirty-two years we were married. Now that you're dead, you like it short."

"Harold says he was stupid. He hated change." Manfred replied.

Rachel sighed wistfully. "Oh, Harold. Not a day goes by that I don't miss you something awful."

Manfred shook his head. "He doesn't want you to grieve him forever. He wants you to be happy."

Rachel took in a breath of courage. "I – I need to tell you something. I'm seeing someone."

The flames of the candles flickered as soon as she said that and this caused eve to look up from her book.

"He's listening. Go on." Manfred said

"We're taking it slow, but…" she smiled, "I'm happy."

Manfred paused a moment before informing her what Harold had said. "He wants to know who it is."

"It's Kevin." Rachel said quickly

the flames on the candles to go out completely, the room had begun freeze over.

"Perhaps we should take a break. Or stop all together" Manfred said

"ya think." Eve scoffed as she got up from the bed.

Then the glass from the mirror back in the corner of the room shattered, Harold then appeared before Manfred and Eve in his ghostly form, pale skin, milky white eyes, hospital gown and a massive hole in his chest where his heart should be.

Manfred, now on his feet with his hand held out. "No. You are not to cross." He demanded

"What's wrong?" Rachel asked in confusion because she couldn't see what was happening.

"Stay back, Stay back!" Manfred firmly demanded. But Harold's ghost didn't listen and lunged forward in is foggy form to take possession.

  
Manfred gasped and gagged as Harold's ghost entered his body through his mouth. He gulped and panted, trying to keep Harold at bay, but his eyes turned white and his head cocked to the side as Harold took over. With a dark and distorted voice, Harold spoke using Him. "My partner? My friend? You had to go there?!" He picked up the wedding band from the table and threw it at her.

Harold flipped the table over and charged towards her. "Since when! Did you wait until I…"

"It's nothing like that!" Rachel fearfully exclaimed.

"What's it like then?" Harold shouted back, grabbing Rachel by the hair, "Does he like your hair like that!"

Manfred's voice broke through as He started getting back control, "Get the hell out of my body, Harold!"

Harold took over once more and grabbed hold of Rachel who tried to run away. He then reached out for a piece of glass and held it out to her. "Well, we can be together again. You can be with me."

"No!" Rachel whimpered in fear. "Please, Harold, no!"

"Hey, Jackass!" Eve yelled. Harold then turned around to face her only to be punched.

"Exorcizamus te," fear then appeared on Harold's face. "Ah, so you know this little song. well then, let me finish it for you. Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica, ergo draco maledicte, ut ecclesiam tuam secura, tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos!"

 In that moment Harold was out of him. His smoky form shot out of his eyes and mouth before disappearing in the air. Once he was gone, Manfred was back in control of his body.

"Did you really have to punch me?" Manfred asked

"Let me think about it.... Yes!" Eve exclaimed. Eve then grab her brother's arm to help him back up.

Manfred moved over to the closed window drapes and opened them.

"Well," Manfred sighed as he looked at the freaked-out Rachel, trying to make light of the situation, "I guess Harold still hates change."

"Why don't i make some tea to help you calm down, okay Rachel?" Eve asked in a caring voice.

"Sure." Rachel said while still frightened at what had happened only seconds ago.

When Rachel left, Eve went over to Manfred who was laying on the sofa messaging his temples with his computer on the table in front of him.

"Here, Manny." handing him his bottle of pills and a water bottle." and take them with water, not booze." Eve said strictly before leaving to go to her bedroom.

Manny of course didn't listen and took some pills and chugged it down with a mini bottle of vodka, when finished he went back to his computer to online chat with someone on his website but then his phone buzzed.

A sense of fear washed over him as he looked at who was calling and it said Hightower. Manfred then answered the phone.

"You can't run from me, Manfred," the voice on the line greeted.

"I'm not running," Manfred countered. "I'm paying you back. I just need time."

"Too late. I will find you."

Upon hearing that, Manfred said, "Gotta go," and hung up.

"Hey, Eve! We gotta go!" Manfred shouted

"Let me guess Hightower." Eve said knowing that was the reason.

"Yup." Manfred said

"I'll get my stuff." Eve said

Manfred looks back at Dallas in the mirror as he drove their RV, with Eve's 1963 airstream trailer attached to it, onto the interstate, hopping that Hightower won't find them.

After some time they reach the rural lands of Texas. Eve laid on the couch in their Rv playing with her sage blades karambit. Manfred then felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at the passenger seat to see his grandmother.

"Hey, Grandma." Manfred and Eve said in union

"Oh Manny, you look terrible." Grandma Xylda said worried with what had happened.

"Look who's talking," Manfred said while shooting his Grandma a quick, teasing look.

"Don't tell me," Grandma Xylda said to him, "You got hijacked?"

"only a second, I ende…"

"I think you mean i ended it with the exorcism." Eve interrupted

"Of course. Only a second, and Eve ended it before it got worse. couple of pills, the headache's gone" Manfred replied

Xylda looked at her grandchildren. "This move will be good for you. Both of you. You need to settle down. You need a home."

"What we is need to disappear." Manfred retorted

"You'll both will be safe in Midnight." Xlyda said

"That'd mean a whole lot more coming from someone who wasn't dead." Manfred joked. Xlyda and Eve burst out laughing as Manfred grinned

As Manfred drove into Midnight, Texas, both he and his sister swore it was a ghost town. There only seemed to be a handful of people, and each giving them a glare, as they drove to meet their new landlord at the pawn shop. They then reached the pawnshop and Manfred parked the rv and turned off the engine.

"C'mon let's go meet Bobo." eve said as her and Manfred looked at the pawnshop.

Manfred got out of his seat and opened the door to get out, as Eve got out of her seat, Manfred was almost hit by a black Land Rover rumbling and he then closed it.

"whoa, Manny!" Eve exclaimed "are you okay?"

"yeah, i think so." Manfred said breathlessly

The two then got out of the rv and meet the redhead woman who almost hit Manny.

"Musician? Pawning a... trumpet?" Manfred guessed as he glanced at the case the woman was carrying

"That's it. You nailed it." the woman answered as she entered a door to the building, but not the shop.

Once the door closed behind the stranger, they two carried on with their walk to the pawn shop.

"Well, she seems nice." Eve said sarcastically

the two then entered the pawn shop and as they continued to walk further in it they begin to hear voices.

"I hate pawn shops." Eve said

the further they walked the voices became louder and begun to hear more voices. as they reached the muskets they heard a voice of the living.

"Hey." they turned to see a man with short brown hair, a square stubbled jaw, and a polite smile, "You must be Manfred and Eve."

Manfred nodded." Yeah. you must be Bobo."

"Yep, nice to meet you two. if you want i can show you over to your new place?" Bobo asked

"Sure, that'd be great" Eve replied

"Alright, let's go." As he led them from the shop, he said, "You made good time coming from Dallas."

"No traffic the last five hours," Manfred replied.

Bobo smiled, "No. No there isn't." He stopped in front of a small shabby-looking house between two of the buildings. After giving them a second to look at it, he said, " I'll show you your new home. Come on"

Once they entered, Bobo beginned to tell them a bit about the place. "The last tenant left the furniture. If particle board bothers either of you, you're welcome to come by the shop."

"It's f-it's fine." Manfred answered for them as he looked around. "We like newer things."

There was a joking smile and amusement on Bobo's face as he spoke, "RV and the trailer attached to it outside suggests otherwise. Hey, I gotta come clean, man. I checked you out before renting the house."

"Hope that's not a problem." Manfred said with a wary look

"That you're psychic?" Bobo asked. "No, just the opposite. I was actually gonna offer you a month's free rent if you could help me out."

Manfred then looked interested at what Bobo had to say.

"My fiancée, well... Aubrey, she-she walked out. And she's not returning my calls--"

Manfred then stopped Bobo, "Let me stop you. It's-- it's not real. I tell people what they want to hear. I'm just really good at reading people. That's all it is."

"Well, no harm in asking." Bobo then hands Manfred the key to the house." You got the place for a month. You need it any longer..."

"I know where to find you. Thanks."

"Thank you, Bobo." Eve added

Bobo simply answered with, "Mmhmm," and looked them over before leaving to the two siblings.

Eve turns to Manfred, anger written on her face, and says " You are such an ass, Manny. It wouldn't have hurt to done a reading for him."

"But then that will draw attention to us, and then Hightower will find us much faster." Manfred argued.

Manfred then went into the kitchen found a plate of cookies from one of their neighbors, Fiji. He took a bite out of one and Eve looked at her brother.

"You do know that those could be poisoned, right?" 

"They taste fine to me." Manfred said back which made Eve look annoyed.

After hours of unpacking nighttime had fell. The two siblings decided to get something to eat and walked towards the local restaurant. They walked through the door and taking in the people already seated. The two made their way over to the counter. Manfred spoke to the waitress who had their back turned to them. "We'd like to place an order to go."

The waitress turned around and smiled. "You must be Manfred and Eve. Bobo said he had new tenants. I saw your RV. Nice ride."

"I know. Real chick magnet." Manfred joked

"I don't think your girlfriend would appreciate comments like that," she replied, gesturing at Eve.

"Sister actually, well adopted if you want to get technical." Eve explained to the waitress.

The waitress became so embarrassed with herself. "Oh, wow, I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

"It's alright. it's not the first time it's happened. Why don't we start over? I'm Eve." gesturing to Manfred. "This is my brother Manfred."

The waitress introduced herself. "I'm Creek. I live behind the Gas & Go with my father and little brother, Connor."

"Cool." Manfred smiled

"Follow me," Creek said before walking down to the other side of the bar.

"Where?" Manfred asked curiously.

"The Midnighter's Room. It's where we sit. Except for Rev. He eats alone. Now that you two live here, you eat with us."

"So if Midnighters eat there then—"

"The rest of the folks are ranchers, folks from Davy," Creek explained.

"Well I don't want to bother."

The waitress scoffed, "You're not. It's usually more crowded. Folks are getting ready for tomorrow. It's the annual fall picnic. You should come. Both of you."

"Well, if you'll be there." Manfred said with a grin

Creek smiled and then changed the subject as she tilted her head toward the table they had stopped besides, "You meet your neighbors yet?"

"Sort of," Manfred answered, looking at the blonde. "You're the non-musician."

"That's Olivia," the man at the table informed them and turned around to reveal his blue eyes. His eyes glance towards Eve for a second. He then continued by introducing himself, "Lemuel Bridger."

"You two eat beef?" Creek suddenly said, causing Manny to direct his attention back at her.

"Wouldn't have moved to Texas if we didn't," was Manfred's witty reply

"Do you trust me?"

"No. But I'll let you pick out my dinner," he answered which made Eve roll her eyes in annoyance.

"Just give me what you give him." Eve said knocking her brother and creek out of the trance that they were in.

"You'll like it. I promise." With that she walked back out of the room. Manfred’s eyes followed her as she walked off.

"Don't let her father see you looking at her like that," Lemuel warned

"I didn't mean any offense," Manny explained making his way to a chair at the other end of the table, "If I'm interrupting—"

"You're not," the blonde said quickly, and then got up to leave, laying her hand on her companion's shoulder as she walked out.

Lemuel then changed seats taking the one on Manny's left, and Eve sat on her brother's right.

"I live under the pawn shop, work the night shift."

Manny started to nod, "That's very nice."

Lemuel was about to say more but he caught sight of a possible problem in the dining area. "Apologies."

"For what?" Manfred asked and was answered by Lemuel pressing his head onto the table and draining his energy. Manfred started to gasp for air and turn blue. Eve's eyes then turned purple, she reached over to try and remove Lemuel's hands from her brother, but as soon as her hands touched his she felt like every drop of energy in her body was slowly being sucked out of her, and like her brother she began to turn blue and gasp for air.

Lemuel released Manny and Eve pulled her hands back.

"It's been awhile since I've eaten. I'm weak, and I was worried. They look like they could be trouble, so I leeched energy." Lemuel explained

"Leeched?" Manny rasped, "What are you exactly?"

"He's a vampire." Eve said with pure hatred in her eyes while trying to catch her breath from what had just happened

"That's one word for it." Lemuel add. “I’m beginning to take offense. Frankly, I'm less frightening than those Sons of Lucifer. Here," He then passes two glasses over to the siblings, "You'll feel better. Told you."

Manfred just chuckled after he took several gulps from his water.

"What's so funny?"

"Usually I’m the freak in the room, well second to my sister." Manfred explained. Eve then hit him in the arm for that comment.

"Oh, shut up Manny." Eve said

"So, uh…" Manny started and then gestured to his neck area, "none of this neck thing?"

"Oh, that's always on the menu." Lemuel said

Two plates where suddenly placed in front of the two siblings, “Madonna’s pot roast special."

Manfred picked-up the plate and started shoveling the food into his mouth and Eve stared at hers for a few seconds before eating it.

Creek smiled with a small chuckle, "See, I told you two you'd like it. So, if you want, I could stop by your place tomorrow and we could go to the picnic."

"I'm not sure. I had a big day of driving…I'm spent." Manny waffled.

Lem interrupted, "You'll feel better in the morning. I'll have to miss it, but you should go. Midnight…is very different in daylight

After dinner Manfred and Eve headed back to their new home. Manfred and Eve settled on sleeping arrangements, Manfred would sleep in the bedroom while Eve slept in the Rv, trailer, or on the couch.

The next morning, Manfred and Eve got up and got dressed for the picnic, a little while later Creek and her brother Conner came by to take Manfred and Eve with them to the picnic.

When they got there it seemed like the entire town was there. As they walked further into the picnic Connor broke off from the group leaving Eve alone with the love birds. Moments later there was a scream and everyone ran over to the edge of the drop, they then saw that it was a decomposing body. Manfred and Eve saw the head of the dead woman turn and look at them, this then caused the two to look at was other.

A while later the sheriff's department showed up and informed everyone that officers will ask questions and no one will leave town before asking the sheriff's department. As everyone was leaving an officer noticed Manfred and Eve out of the crowd.

the officer said "Haven't seen you two before."

Manfred motioned with his arm that creek can go while Eve stays with her brother.

"probably because we just moved here." Eve responded

"You live here?" Manfred asked

The officer replied "Heck no. I live in Davy. Work with the Roca Fria County Sheriff's department. Midnight's just in our jurisdiction. Why Midnight? Why would you two move here?"

"Well, it's nice and quiet." Eve answered

"And cheap." Manfred added

"A reason for that. Truth is, I'm surprised this kind of thing hasn't happened before."

"Kind of thing?" Manfred asked

"A cult murder." Officer Gomez clarified. "You know, the kids in Davy, they dare one another to walk Witch Light Road on full moons."

"It's got a bit of a ghost town vibe, but people seem nice." Manfred said

"Do they?" Officer Gomez questioned. She then motioned to Fiji. “Some folks say she's a witch. Or a lesbian."

"Could be both."

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised to find a skin suit in that pawn shop."

With the look on Eve's face you can easily tell that she had has enough.

"well, it's been really nice talking to you, officer Gomez but me and my brother have to go. c'mon Manny." Eve then pulled on her brother's arm.

Later that night, as Manfred slept, his room became increasingly cold and infested with flies. He turns over to discover Aubrey laying in bed next to him. Manfred jumps up to a floor covered in water. Aubrey didn't belong there, he insisted that she go away, but Aubrey refused to obey his command. Initially, he assumed that Aubrey sought to possess him, but he soon learned that she required his assistance after she wrote out the word "help", in the condensation on the window. Manfred agreed to help but it would be done his way, with precautions in place.

Manfred exited his room to wake up Eve. Finding her on the couch, he shaked her only to be met with one of her blades inches from his throat.

"Whoa!" Manfred exclaimed in fear and shock.

upon with closer look Eve realized that it's Manfred.

"Manny, What the hell are you doing up? Do you know how late it is?" Eve asked 

Manfred then explained "It's Aubrey. I just got a vist from her but she can't talk so i need to perform a séance."

"Ok, just let me get dressed."

"Wait, so you’re going to help me just like that?"  Manfred asked 

"Well, if you do this and it goes south then you’re going to need help." Eve explained

Manfred nodded in agreement and said, "Fine. you still have the dust, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm all out of holy water."

"Lucky enough for us that there's a church here."

"Yeah. lucky us." Eve mumbled  

After the two had gotten dressed they made their way over to the church to get some holy water. Once they we're inside Manfred told Eve to be the lookout and Eve nodded her head in agreement.

Manfred then took out the flask and put it in the holy water to fill it up until a hand on his shoulder made him stop. He turned around and it the Rev.

"Taking holy water?"

"Yeah. Yes, I-I am. Reverend, I'm-" Manfred tried to explain but was then interrupted by the Rev.

"Manfred. I know who you are." He takes the flask out of Manfred's and fills it up with the holy water, and then hands it back to him. “Sunday service starts at eight, if you’re interested."

"Uh, thanks" Manfred then left and as he crossed the street a voice took him by surprise.

"Ok, we have the holy water now let's talk to Aubrey." Eve said appearing out of nowhere.

"Why didn't you warn me back there since that's what a lookout is supposed to do?"

"You know that my kind and those of the cloth have a history, but there's definitely something different about him." Eve explained

"Oh and what's that?" Manfred asked

"I'm not sure but i don't think that the Rev is human, and no I don't know what he is." Eve answered before her brother can ask her another question.

The two walked into the house and set everything up in a spare room with no furniture.

Eve made a line on each of the Window and at the front of the door with a the dust before handing it over to Manfred.

"Remember Manny, knock three times."

Eve then closed the door to let her brother talk to Aubrey. Manfred summons Aubrey, while using a Ouija board for proper communication between the two of them. Aubrey begins moving the planchette to spell out the word "Pecados", but he has no idea what this word means. However, before Manfred could gather any further information from Aubrey, the séance was interrupted by several uninvited ghosts. A bright orange light could also be seen under the floorboard as it was being pushed up just beneath Manfred's feet. He knocks on the door and rushes out the room just as it opens and one of the ghosts’ charge in his direction.

"Manny are you okay? What happened in there?"

"I-I'm not sure." Manfred answered Eve as he wrapped a ghost warding object that resembled a hand with an eye in the palm of it, on the doorknob. “One minute I'm talking to Aubrey then all of these other ghosts start showing up."

Manfred went over to the window and he saw one of the Sheriff's deputies making their way towards the house. "Damn it."

He quickly grabbed his coat from the back of the chair and tossed it to Eve who put it at the bottom of the door to block out the light. Once Manfred knew that it was safe he opened the door.

"Hello again." Manfred greeted Officer Gomez

"I need to take your statement, Mr. and Ms. Bernardo." Officer Gomez

stated bluntly

"Listen, we just moved here. we have nothing do to with any of this." Eve told her.

"I'd like to take a look around, if you don't mind." Officer Gomez moved closer to the door.

Eve was starting to get irritated and said "Uh, yes, I do mind."

"Why?" Manfred asked curiously

"Cause you're acting weird." Officer Gomez turned to him. “And you lie to people for a living."

she then reached for the door knob. Manfred and Eve then look at each other before Manfred took action.

"I don't. i can prove it. Does "Pecados" mean anything to you?"

Officer Gomez took interest in what Manfred had said and she called the sheriff. They then went to a water bank in Midnight that was named "Pecados". Manfred, Eve, and the two officers while the diving team was searching the water for anything that could be useful.

"Now, I've heard of departments consulting with psychics. I never put much stock in it." The sheriff said

"My grandmother did it all the time." Manfred told the sheriff

"I got a Magic 8-Ball. Maybe I should shake it, figure out who stole Levi's Subaru." Officer Gomez joked, both she and the sheriff got a good laugh.

One of the divers shouted that they found something and hold up his net with a gun in it.

"Can your 8-Ball do that?" Eve said with a grin growing on her face.

After the diving team packed everything up, Officer Gomez then drove Manfred and Eve back to their new home. After the two had got out Manfred informed Gomez.

 

"I already have consultations scheduled in Phoenix-"

"Cancel them. You're part of this investigation. Don't leave town." Officer Gomez

interrupts before she pushed on the gas and left.

The two walked to their Rv and started talking with Xylda, who Manfred blames.

"You said we'd be safe."

"Well, I thought you'd lay low, not conjure up angry ghosts." Xylda said to her grandson

"I conjured one ghost. Not a crowd of 'em. Certainly, not whatever that was under that floor." Manfred countered 

Xylda looked at both of her grandchildren and said “Midnight’s not the same as most places."

"We've noticed." Eve said to her grandmother

"Which is why we need to get the hell out as soon as possible." Manfred said

Three then heard the heavy pounding of a few knocks on the door of the Rv. Manfred pulled one of the curtains a bit back and saw the it was Olivia, he then opened the door.

"Olivia." Manfred greeted

"You okay?" Olivia asked. "I-I heard voices." She added

"You did. Me. I was talking to Eve." Manfred explained. "So, uh I'm surprised. I thought you were avoiding me."

"I was. Till now." Olivia then punched Manfred in the face with brass knuckles, and knocked him out. At that point Eve got up from where she was sitting to face Olivia only to be knocked out with a Taser.

After stripping them down to check for wires and tying the chairs they we're in back to back, Olivia was about to interrogate them but was interrupted by a knock on her door. Manfred then begun to try and break free from the bindings which only resulting in both of them falling. Olivia returned with Fiji, the woman from the picnic.

"Ugh, help me get them up."

"Why exactly are they naked?" Fiji asked Olivia

"I was checking for wires, GPS trackers." Olivia explained to her.

"We live such different lives."

The vampire, Lem, then entered the room, surprised at what he sees and said, “This is unexpected."

"Oh, well, now that you're done sleeping in, how 'bout some help?" Olivia said to him before she ripped the duck-tape off of Manfred and Eve's mouth very painfully.

"Looks like I'm just in time for the fun."

" Hundreds of Podunk towns in Texas. Why ours?" Olivia asked the two

"Luck, I suppose."

"Do you work for the police or any law enforcement agency? were you sent here to find someone? Did my dad send you?" Olivia asked the two threatenly

"Y-your dad? No!" Manfred said while Eve said “Hate to break it to ya, Blondie. But we don't know your dad."

"I'm getting bored and hungry." Lem said

"Okeydokey, this could go sideways real fast. I don't want that. You don't want that." Fiji said to them

While Olivia said "I'm good either way."

"I'm here 'cause my grandma got a feeling. A psychic feeling that we'd be safe here. Her reads are usually spot-on--"

"But Xylda's also a pathological liar, so there's that." Eve finishing what Manfred what saying.

"Xylda? Gypsy Xylda?" Lem asked

"You, you know my grandma?" Manfred questioned

"I do. How's she doing?"

"Dead. Going on a year now. Throat cancer. After a run-in with someone who tried to kill me, Xylda said I should hide here." Manfred explained to them

"Who are you hiding from, and why do they want you dead?" Oliva asks threatenly 

"They really want Xylda dead, but it's too late for that. So, Manny is the only one left to get payback from." Eve explained to Oliva.

"Who'd want to hurt Xylda?" Lem questioned

"She ran scams, removed fake hexes, curses, stole and spent more than $2 million." Manfred told Lem.

"Still doesn't explain why they're so chummy with the sheriff." Olivia said

"They showed up my door. I didn't want to give them my secrets. So, I gave 'em Aubrey's. I-I'm done with the questions and getting punched in the face, thank you. "  
 

"Same goes for me with the tazzing” Eve cut in.

 

"So, either end it already or let us get dressed." Manfred finished

Olivia pulled back her fist with the brass knuckles ready to hit Manfred but Lem put her fist down before saying. "Untie them. They're one of us"

 

Manfred and Eve were then untied from their chairs and given back their clothes so they can get dressed.

 

"Midnight has been a haven for people like us for centuries. Some, like Xylda, stop for a bit and move on. Others, like us, make this home." Lem explained to Manfred and Eve.

"Wait, everyone here is" Manfred paused before questioning Olivia. "... What are you?"

"None of your business." Olivia answered, while spinning her silver knuckles around her finger.  

"Olivia's a friend. Her, Bobo, human, but open-minded." Lem said

Fiji walked into the room carrying an icepack for Manfred and said. "Your grandma wasn't wrong. If you can stand the summers and the neighbors, Midnight is pretty safe." She hands the icepack over to Manfred and he takes it.

"As long as we're quiet, cops and regular folks tolerate us, but…"

Olivia cuts Lem off by saying. “The bitch dying isn't quiet."

"And with the police and media digging, torches and pitchforks aren't far behind." Lem said calmly

"Question: you said people like us are drawn here. What's so special about this place?" Manfred asked

"Oh, well, Midnight sits on powerful mystical energy. The veil between the living and the dead is awful thin here." Fiji answered Manfred’s question

"Oh." Manfred and Eve said in realization as to what happened back at their new home.

"Oh, what?" Olivia questions the two.

"Oh, I get why Xylda liked this place so much."

"Yeah, Xylda must have love being in Midnight. " Eve added to what her brother said.

 

"You want me to get some salve for your face?" Fiji offered  

"No, I just want to go home." Manfred said as he and Eve were getting up leave.

"Of course. Apologies for the little misunderstanding. This is usually a quiet and peaceful town." Lem apologizes to the two before they left.

   
Manfred and Eve leave the room and left the building to go home. The next morning, they got dressed and headed to the Gas & Go.

 

"I swear Manny this better not be an attempt to get with that girl. " Eve said

Manfred turned to his sister with a smile on his face and said "Only one way to find out.” The two then made their way in the Gas & Go, and they saw Creek at the counter. Manfred and Creek both said hey to each other as Manfred made his way to the back of the store and grabbed a few things while Eve waited by the counter.

Creek then took notice of the bruise on Manfred’s face and asked, “What in the world happened to you?"

"I wish I had some sexy story to tell. It's just, uh me, a box, and a high shelf." Manfred claimed

"Uh, a heavy box, apparently." Creek chuckled

"Very. Haven't seen you since the picnic. You, uh, you okay?" Manfred asked

"I can't stop thinking about it. " Creek then straightens up and asks Manfred. "That be all for you today?"

"Uh yep." Manfred said with confusion on his face by Creek’s sudden change in demeanor.

"Take a break, honey." The man said

"Great. Thanks, Dad." Creek said then left

"What were you talking to her about?" Creek’s father asked

"Being… neighborly. Pleasantries." Manfred replied

"That better be all. That'll be $12. 50. " Manfred handed over the money before taking his leave with his sister.

 

On Their way home, Eve notices a large animal in the back of Rev's truck, heavily bleeding as a large pool of blood collected just beneath. They then shared a look with Rev, and continued on their way.

 

Shortly after returning to their trailer, Manfred’s phone rings, he picks is up and answers.

 

"Hello?"

The voice that came from the phone was one that both he and Eve dreaded, Hightower said, “I know you're in Texas. You were in Dallas. I'm getting closer."

   
There was then a knock on the door that made both Manfred and Eve jump. Manfred got up and opened the door and saw that it was Creek.

"Hey. " Manfred greeted Creek.

"Hey. I stopped by your house, but Uh, … "

"Yeah, lot of flies, bugs. " Manfred concluding her sentence before saying, "I'll talk to Bobo if I decide to stay. "

"Oh. Well, I just wanted to apologize for before. My dad's weird and I didn't want to get into a thing with him, so if I was cold to you, that's why. " Creek explained for what happened earlier.

"Yeah, no apology necessary. We're good. " Manfred said

"Oh, good. I'm glad we're good. " Creek smiled

 

"Uh, well, since you came all this way, you want to have a beer? " Manfred offered

"I guess, yeah." Creek smiled as she accepted Manfred offer and stepped into the Rv. The two then smiled at each other but they we interpreted by a cough, they turned their heads in the direction the cough came from and they saw Eve, who was waving hello and had a grin on her face.

   
"Uh, Eve could, um, could you leave us, please” Manfred stumbled

   
Eve smiled at her brother and said, "Yeah that would be a no, Manny. Don’t worry you won’t even know I’m here." Manfred sighed knowing that he wouldn’t be able to get rid of his sister.

 

As the three drinked and talked time had flew and they didn’t realize that it was dark out, eventually Manfred and Creek has forgotten that Eve was the in Rv with them. They then started talking about Midnight.

 

 "I gotta admit, this place is nothing like I thought. " Manfred said

 

"Yeah, it's its own thing. Makes for good stories, though. " Creek told Manfred

 

"Stories?  You a writer? " Manfred asked

   
Creek then went on to say that wrote but she wasn't a writer. Once Connor was out of the house, she was going back to school. Her father would be real tough to deal with alone. After her mom died, her dad changed, which is exactly why they moved to Midnight, to avoid any memories of her. Going to high school in Davy sucked because she was known as the girl that lived with freaks, even though that's not too far off from her current living environment, but the Midnighters were her family.  
 

Creek then went on to talk about the Midnighters, "I know what Lem is. He's not the only one with secrets. Like Joe, from the tattoo parlor, he watches over everyone. You can always count on him to help. I wonder what brought him and Chuy to this place. Bobo never talks about family or where he came from, but he's sweet and kind. And you will never meet a more honest person than Bobo. The Rev, I still haven't figured him out. I've seen him pull a gravestone out of the ground with one hand and he's completely obsessed with his pet cemetery. I know Fiji's more than just a New Age cat lady, but she doesn't have a mean bone in her body. And then there's Olivia. She's got more secrets than anyone. Midnight's weird, but it's home. "  
   
"Yeah, Me and Eve never lived in any one place for very long. There. " Manfred and handed Creek another drink.

   
"Thanks. Well, you and Eve should fit in pretty well here. "

 

"You saying I'm weird? " Manfred questioning what Creek had said.

 

Creek smiled and answered, “You are. I Googled you, Mr. Psychic. "

 

It was a family business; he came from a long line of Gypsy fortune tellers. Sometimes his work is real but a lot of the time it's theater, he explained. Creek asked if he could give her a reading. Manfred takes her hand, and tells Creek that her life line was long. She would go on to see the world, and meet her soulmate, if she already hasn't. It'll be someone who sees how special she really is. Creek assumed this was the theater part of his work. Creek tells Manfred that if he was going to kiss her then that moment would be the right time. As Manfred goes in for the kiss but was interrupted by flashing blue and red lights. The trio exited the Rv to see what was going on, they and many other Midnighters, some with guns, gathered around and saw Bobo being arrested by Sheriff Livingston and Officer Gomez

 

They handcuff Bobo and place him in the back of the police vehicle as the Midnighters surround them from all sides. The sheriff move to the driver’s side and called out to the Midnighters, "Everybody, go home."

 

"He would never kill her. He loved her! " Fiji protested as Olivia held her back. "More than she deserved. "

   
 "Look, we have identified the murder weapon. It belonged to him." The sheriff explained

   
Lem then spoke up, "You've already decided he's guilty. I don't trust you with our friend. "

 

 "Yeah, well, I don't trust you either. " The sheriff replied  
 

"You don't want to start a war. "

   
 The sheriff paused at what Lem said before addressing the crowd, "Clear the road. "

 

Manfred and Eve then joined the Midnighters and they heard a voice from the crowd shouting, "He’s not going anywhere.", and another shouting, "Neither are we. "

   
"Go home! Just clear the road! " The sheriff yelled, while getting in his car, at the Midnighters before calmly saying, "Go home. "

 

The second he closed the door of the car, Fiji raised her hands and her eyes glowed red. The metal of the car crinkled and the car then rised from the ground

   
The Rev placed his hand on Fiji’s arm and said, “Fiji, not this way. This won't help him. And tomorrow's a full moon. I'll be unavailable for a few days. "

   
"We have got to be smart about this, Fiji. Not angry. " Olivia said, trying to persuade Fiji to stop.

 

Eve looked at her brother and gave him an elbow nudge, Manfred looked at Eve and she gave him a look that meant that they have to do something.

 

Manfred then spoke, "We'll help. However, we can. And I think we can. "

   
Fiji then stopped what she was doing with a cry, and the car then dropped to the road and returned to normal. The Midnighters made a gap for the car as it drove off with one of their own.

After the car was out of sight, the crowd of Midnighters dispersed. Manfred and Eve then returned home to discover that the entire house was lighting up from within, and ghostly figures could be seen through the windows.

 


	2. Bad moon rising

Manfred and Eve stare at their home that is now taken over by spirits and the inside glowing red, they then look at each other before entering the Rv.  Manfred then popped some pills and washed them down with a beer which made Eve shook her head. Xylda appeared on the bed in the back of the Rv.

 

“Bad night?” she asked her grandchildren

 

Manfred didn’t say anything at first but just sat down on the benched seat while Eve leaned against the counter and looking down at the floor of Rv.

 

Manfred spoke with an annoyed voice,” ‘Go to Midnight', you said," he takes a deep yet shaky breath. "'Small, out of the way place. Nice folks. Just lay low, work, make money.'" He scoffed

 

“I should have put up a warding or binding spell before the séance.” Eve said muttered   

 

“So, that’s a yes,” Xylda replied knowing what she said was true.

 

“The house is infested.” Manfred answered, waving his hand at the house, “Ghosts and whatever the hell's growling in there. Oh, and we just promised the town that we'd help with…” he was then interrupted by his phone.

 

“Hightower’s been calling all night.” Xylda informed them.

 

“Remember what you used to say? When the going gets tough…” Manfred began, he, Eve, and Xylda finished the little saying together, “We live in a house with wheels.”

 

Xylda grinned and chuckled at the saying, “I know. But that was before I died. You two don’t have me anymore. You both need people.”

 

Eve chuckled at her grandmother said, “I’m not really a people person and I’m pretty sure that they won’t like me once they find out what I am.”

 

“It’s a lot more than I sighed up for,” Manfred admitted.

 

“It’ll be worth it. Midnighters protect each other. And Eve, I’ve always told you to get to know the person before you judge ‘em.” Xylda said trying to coax her grandchildren into getting help.

 

“Sure, great, kumbaya.”

 

“You two saw it with your own eyes.”

 

Manfred and Eve shared a look before he took a breath and turned to Xylda. “I don’t know if I can handle going in there.”

 

“it’s Midnight. You don’t need to pretend you’re normal. Let your freak flag fly.” Xylda said with ardent voice before it changed to a gentler and serious one, “Tell ‘em what’s up.”

 

“C’mon Manny, she’s not going to stop anytime soon. So, let’s just go get help so that she’ll shut up.” Eve said now trying to coax her brother.

 

“Alright,” he agreed.

 

The two went to the pawn shop, hoping to find someone that can help them, and instead they found Joe, the rev, Fiji, Olivia talking about last night’s events and figuring out how to help Bobo.

 

“We need help.” Manfred said

 

“That’s an understatement.”

 

Hearing Olivia’s snide words irritated Eve.

 

“Watch it Blondie,” Manfred held back Eve by her arm.

 

“Here’s the thing, our place is overrun with ghosts and all sorts of evil crap.” Manfred said

 

“Crap?” Fiji questioned, “Can you be more specific?”

 

“Poltergeist, possibly a Demonic entity.” Eve throws out.

 

“Well that should be taken care of, “Lem said with some concern

 

Joe became interested and questioned the two, “What makes you think that it’s demonic?”

 

“Well, beside the fact that there’s growling---” Eve started to answer when Olivia interrupted her.

 

"Sure you're not trying to weasel out of keeping your word?"

"No," Manfred said quickly, "We—we want to get answers from Aubrey. I'm just saying the chaos back at our place will make it hard.”

 

“So, what my brother is trying to say is that we need back up."

 

Lem spoke first. "The sun will be up shortly. I'm out."

 

"Whatever you need. I know my way around haunts." Fiji said offering her assistance.

 

"I'll go. I'm curious " Joe said

"You know CPR?" Manfred asked

 

Manfred then received questioning looks from the group.

 

“Just in case things go south.” Eve explained.

 

With that Eve, Manfred, Fiji, and Joe left the pawn shop. When they arrived at the house and as soon as they went inside there was swarms of files and cold enough to see your breath.

 

Fiji shivered and started to rub her hands together, “You were right.” She said as walked to the other side of the living room.

 

“Some seriously bad mojo,” Joe said after he closed the door behind him.

 

“Do you see any ghosts now?” Fiji asked Manfred and Eve.

 

Both of them nodded and Manfred said, “Oh, yeah.”

 

The ghosts were everywhere, especially on the ceiling, in their smoke forms and it seemed as if there was more of them. There was then a growl that came from the floor that startled everyone.

 

“My goddess.” Fiji exclaimed as she took a step back.

 

“Whoa.” Joe said in surprise

 

Manfred and Eve looked at them and Manfred said. "You saw that too?"

"That definitely feels like some sort of demonic spirit," Fiji confirmed.

Eve looked at the kitchen and noticed Aubrey.

 

“Hey, Manny!” Eve called her brother over.

 

“What is it?” Fiji asked them as to what caught their attention.

 

“Aubrey’s here.” Manfred said as he made his way into the kitchen, with Eve, Joe, and Fiji behind him.

 

“Are you going to talk to her?” Joe asked.

 

“Yeah, something like that. Just, uh, stay back.” Manfred replied

 

“Just be careful, Manny.” Eve said in a worrying voice.

 

Manfred nodded before moving closer. “Aubrey? We need your help?” He said

 

Aubrey opened her mouth to reply but just like before, only a gurgling sound and some water came out of her mouth.

 

"Bobo's in jail.” Aubrey's expression grew worried.” So, if he didn't do it, I need you to show me who did." Manfred explained

"You can, uh…" He paused. "borrow my body. Show me what happened."

Aubrey then turned into smoke and took possession of Manfred. While under her possession, he witnesses Aubrey taking a walk, being attacked and shot, dragged to the water, and drowning. Manfred then started to cough up water. Joe, Fiji, and Eve rushed toward over to Manfred.

 

“We need to get him out of here. Come on.” Joe said as he and Eve took one of Manfred’s arms and put them over their shoulders.

Fiji opened the door for them and said, “Quick get him to my house. The dead can’t enter there.”

 

They all rushed into Fiji’s house. As they entered the house Aubrey’s spirit let go of its hold on Manfred. Joe and Eve placed her brother, passed out, on the couch. Eve then pressed two of her fingers on her brother’s neck and sighed in relief as she felt he had a good pulse.

 

“Thank you, usually I would have to do an exorcism and take him to the hospital.” Eve thanked the two.

 

Joe gave Eve a comforting smile and said, “No problem, you would have done the same if it was one of us. I’ll take you to the station when he wakes so we can get Bobo free.” He then nodded at both of the women before leaving.

 

Eve took a seat next to Manfred with a worrying expression on her face for her brother. Fiji looked at Eve and she could tell that a million thoughts were going through Eve’s head.

 

“You should probably get some rest.” Fiji suggested. “It will probably be some time before he wakes up but don’t worry I’ll wake you up the moment he does.”

 

“Thanks. I think that with everything that’s happened in the past few hours we could all use some rest.” Those were the last words that Eve spoke before she took out her phone, put her ear buds in, played bad moon rising, closed her eyes and fell asleep.

 

Sometime had pasted when Eve woke up, she looked over to her brother and saw him waking up as well.

 

Fiji came into the room and set a glass mug on the table for Manfred, “Drink that. You’ll feel better.”

 

Manfred accepted and said, “I haven't slept that deep in a long time. Your place is so quiet."

“Fiji said that the dead can’t get in here.” Eve said to her brother.

Fiji was putting some things into a bag as she answered that. "Your sister’s right. I gave it a deep cleanse before I moved in." She paused a moment before pointing out, "Mediums don't usually stay long in Midnight. I imagine it's gotta be hard for you both."

 

"Pawn shop's not our favorite place," Eve replied, while her brother took a sip of the drink.

"Yeah." Fiji said with complete understanding.

Done taking a sip from the drink Manfred said, "I saw the murder. A biker killed Aubrey. "

"Sons of Lucifer? " Fiji questioned.

 

"You know them? " Manfred asked

 

"I see them around. " Fiji said as she continued to gather up items she needed. “White power jerks. Aubrey was married to one."

Manfred and Eve looked confused at what Fiji had told them.

 

Fiji chuckled at that. "Confused? Join the club. Poor Bobo looked like he got punched in the gut when Livingston told him. Manfred, you need to tell the police what you saw."

Manfred got to his feet. "I didn't see who killed her."

 

"You know enough to point them away from Bobo. " Fiji stated

 

"Yeah, but…" He looked at Fiji. "You really think they'll believe me?"

They might," Fiji replied. "You led them to the gun. It's a long shot, yeah, but we're neighbors now. It's what Midnighters do. Plus, you two promised."

"She’s got us there, Manny. " Eve said

Manfred sighed and said, "Fine. We’ll be neighborly."

 

"Excellent. While you're doing that, I'll get started on your house." Fiji replied as she left the room and came back with a devil’s net.

 

"With…whatever that is?" Manfred questioned

 

"That’s a devil’s net. " Eve answered

 

Fiji smiled at what Eve said, "Correct. It captures evil and allows me to measure malevolent energies. We have got to take care of your house ASAP. That thing under the floor? It's worrisome."

Manfred stet his drink down and said, "Do you think…by conjuring Aubrey did we invite it in?"

 

"You know, it's like I said, Midnight's on a veil between worlds. Maybe you did. Regardless, we have got to get it back on its side of the veil." Fiji said as she gathered ingredients from her shelves.

 

"How?" Manfred asked in a worrying voice.

 

Fiji smiled at him and said, "An Exorcism. But I will need to prepare. So, Manfred, Eve, while that's happening, you go talk to the police about what you saw. "

Manfred gestured towards his sister and said, "Why can’t Eve do it? "

 

"Because Manny I only do exorcisms on people. Places are a whole other level because so many people have can attachments there. So, come on joe will probably be here soon to take us to the station. "

 

Not long after joe came by and picked them up, Manfred was riding shot gun while Eve sat in the back of the truck. Before leaving for Davy, they stopped at the Gas & Go, where Manfred informed Creek of his plan, hoping that it would not only free Bobo, but that it would impress her as well, which Creek was very much aware of. While she would be working that night, Creek was hoping to plan something for the two of them later that week. However, she quickly headed back into the garage as her father exited the store, and stared down Manfred.

 At the Roca Fria Sheriff's department, Manfred informs Sheriff Livingston of what happened to Aubrey before she died.

“Had the Sons of Lucifer patch on the back of his jacket. And this face mask, like a skeleton. "Manfred informed Livingston.

"But you didn't see his face? " He asked

"No. She didn't get a good look. I was right about the gun."

 "That was very specific." Livingston said in a sceptic tone

"Okay, fine. Specific. The night Aubrey died, she was taking a walk, clearing her head. She didn't know what to do. She wanted to tell Bobo she'd lied, but she was scared. She didn't want to lose him. "

   
"And she said all this? " Livingston questioned  

Manfred sighed and continues to speak, “In a way. She her spirit showed me what happened. What she remembered. A truck shows up. Right away she knows something's not right. She goes for the pistol in her bag, but it didn't help her. The guy jumped her from behind, took the gun, and shot her with it. After that, she was in and out of consciousness for a while. She remembers being in the back of the truck. She saw him toss the gun. And then she was dragged to the river's edge. Other things had died there. Aubrey realized she was being left there to die. It took a while. Three days, to be specific. "

"Okay. It could be that her ghost told you all of this. There could be a simpler reason. "

"I killed her? " Manfred scoffed at what Livingston said.

   
 "He wouldn't have come if he were involved. " Joe said trying back up Manfred.

   
"Plus, we weren’t even in Midnight when Aubrey died. " Eve said defending her brother.

"The gun was dumped in the river. Guessing that's not the only evidence he got rid of. You really want to find the killer, you keep looking. " Manfred said with certainty.

As Joe, Manfred, and Eve drove back to Midnight, he comments that what Manfred did was pretty badass, and that he had faith it would lead to Bobo’s release. Manfred, Eve, and Fiji return to his and Eve’s house in preparation for the cleansing.

As they prepare Manfred sets up a mirror and asks Fiji, "You sure about this? Mirrors and séances can get messy? "

Fiji chuckles and says, " You two don’t need ‘em ‘because you can see the dead. I can’t. the mirrors help me see the spirit realm. " She then takes notice of the evil eye, a ghost warding talisman wrapped around the door knob on Manfred's door.

Eve noticed that Fiji was admiring the Evil eye, "Belonged to Xylda. "

"Feels powerful. " Fiji commented

"Yeah, supposedly my ancestors fought demons and demonic possessions back in Europe. Grandma, packrat that she was, she kept a ton of stuff. " Manfred said

 "No doubt half of it is probably illegal." Eve added.

 "I’m intrigued. But that's for another time. Now we have an exorcism to perform. You ready? " Fiji asks the two. 

"Ready as I’ll ever be. " Manfred answered while Eve nodded.

 Fiji opens the door, releasing the spirits trapped behind it, she then asks the two, "Bad as before? " Manfred and Eve look above them and they saw a female ghost crying.

"Worse. " Manfred replied

 "Way worse. " Eve added.

 Fiji looks at the devil’s net and says, “Well, there's some evil present, for sure. " She grabs a metal bowl taps it and calls out the spirits, "Spirits who once called this place home, we need to talk. They listening? "

"No, there just sort of circling Manny. " Eve answered.

 Fiji then spoke with some worry in her voice, "He’s their ride back to the living. I can't compete. I need to be alone. They need to have no other options for leaving. You can be hijacked. I can't. You should leave too Eve, just in case. "

"Right, I'll just be on the porch if you need us. C’mon Eve. " Manfred then exited the house and Eve behind him.

They then watched the exorcisms on the porch through a window until there was a scream. Manfred and Eve shared a look before investigating, as they crossed the street towards the Chapel, the discovered officer Gomez’s bloody body hanging in the tree.

Eve starred at the tree and said, “well, that can’t be good. " 

"C’mon we need to warn everybody. " Manfred said heading towards the restaurant.

As they walked in Madonna, while wiping down the bar, said "We’re closed. "

They headed straight over to her and Manfred whispered, "You can’t let anyone leave. "

"I can’t?" She said with confusion and annoyance.

Eve then explained, "Listen, there is something out there that is strong enough to kill a person and put them up a tree."

"It’s a full moon. " Madonna murmured and turned to the people in the restaurant still eating, "You know what? Just scratch that. You can stay as long as need. "

Manfred looked around but didn’t see Creek, "Where’s Creek? She said she was working. "

"She is, just not here," Madonna answered as she placed her phone to her ear and walked away with dishes in her other hand.

Manfred and Eve shared a look before heading out the door and running to the Gas & Go knowing that Creek could be in danger.

When they had gotten-closer Manfred starts to yell "Creek! " but she couldn’t hear him over the

loud music that was playing. Once they reached the Gas & Go, between the gas pumps and the door the music turned off.

Manfred and Eve heard a noise, looked to their right and saw a tiger running towards them. The Tiger missed Eve and shredded Manfred’s right side.

"Ah! " Manfred cried. He grabbed his wounded side with his left hand.

Manfred and Eve ran into the Gas & Go and Creek motioned them in and asks in shock, "Come here! What was that? "

"It’s a tiger. " Manfred answered

"What?" Creek said in disbelief.

"Come with me." They rushed to the maintenance bay in the back, "This way here," she pointed to an open bay door but the tiger was already making its way inside using that door.

"Not this way," Manfred said grabbing Creek’s arm to tug her the other way and Eve as well.

As they ran out of the garage, Eve turned her head to the car lift and her eyes glowed purple. The car lift then broke causing the vehicle on it to fall on the tiger. They stopped once they made it out and turned back to look at the building.

   
"Why the hell is there a tiger? " Creek asks, out of breath.

"I think it’s the rev. " Manfred said after he look at his wound.

"What? Is he okay? "

the growling then grew louder and they saw the tiger almost out from underneath the car.  


"Yeah, he’ll be fine. As for us let’s move, now! " Eve replied.

 Manfred grabbed creek’s hand and the three ran off to get as much distance between them and the tiger. Loud growls and roars can be heard throughout the dark streets as Manfred, Eve, and Creel continue to run for their lives. they made it to the Rv and Manfred held the door open until they all got inside and then quickly shut it.

Eve looked through one of the Rv windows, "I think we may have lost him. "  


"How bad is it," Creek asks Manfred.

"Ah," Manfred grunted as he raised the shirt to reveal three long scratches on his side.

"You’ll definitely need stiches, Manny." Eve said

Creek gasped as her hands went to cover her mouth, "Oh, my—it's not that bad."

"Never play poker." Manfred told her.

"Sorry, sorry." She turned to try and find something to help and found a rag, "I just need to apply pressure." Manfred gasped in pain when he pressed the rag to the wound. Creek then asks in a whisper, "Does that hurt? "

He smiled flirtatiously trying to hide the pain he was in, "Less so at the moment. "

"Well, good. It's the least I can do."

"Just so you know, once I'm not bleeding, I'll try for that kiss again."

Creek countered, "Well, just so you know, a little blood doesn't scare me. " They both started to lean toward each other but where soon interrupted by Eve.

"Really? You two are gonna make out when a tiger is out there! "  


They all nearly fell when the Rv was hit by something big.

Manfred goes through a drawer and hands Creek a knife, "Here take this."

"Huh? Nothing with bullets? " She said after she took it.

"I’m new to Texas, " He told her, "Eve? "

"Like you have to ask. " She answered as she pulled out her karambit sage blades.

"Where is—" Creek’s whisper broke off into a gasp as the tiger growled and claw marks appeared in the roof of the RV.  


"Any ideas, Grandma?" Manfred asked as he looked towards the front seats.

 "Grandma? " Creek asked very confused.

"She's dead. I see her."

   
Xylda then looked at her grandson from her place in the driver's seat and answered "Stop talking and run. "

Eve shook her head and said, “Not really the best opinion right now. "

They then heard multiple gunshots. They then heard the tiger growl and felt the Rv rocking as it jumped off, and run off. When they stopped hearing gunshots, they exited the Rv and saw Oliva and Lem.

"You let him out, didn't you?" Olivia accused Manfred, which irritated Eve.

   
"He didn’t, Blondie. " Eve told her before pointing down the street. "She did. "

They then made their way to the tree that held Gomez’s body.

"So, if it bites you… " Manfred started to ask.

"You're born a were, dimwit. “Oliva answered.

"Not exactly common knowledge. Weretigers are rare nowadays." Lem admits

"So the Rev did that?" Creek asked.

Lem sighed, “Such a waste," before taking a deeper breath and turning to Manfred, "You're bleeding, aren't you?"

"A little." Manfred replied as if his would was just a scratch.

"More than a little," another deep inhale, "Smells fresh."  


"I got it Uncle Lem," Creek said as she grabs Manfred’s arm and led Manfred towards the restaurant, with Eve close behind them. "Let's have Madonna take a look at it for you."

Eve waited in the Midnighter’s room, twirling her blades, and looking out the window while her brother was getting stitched up by Madonna. When Manfred is done joins Creek over by the table, joking that Madonna's stitch work is better than certain ERs he had been to. Creek chuckles, and thanks him for saving her life back at the Gas N Go, and he thanks her for saving his. Eve’s eyes widen as she saw bright and flickering light at the house.

"Hey, Manny. I think we should check on how Fiji is doing. "

Manfred glances through the window and saw what was going on at their house.

"If you’ll excuse me." He said to Creek, before he and Eve rush back over to find the house in utter of chaos, lights flickering, cabinets slamming, the fire place shooting out flames, but within moments, the craziness subsides.

Fiji smiles and says, "Exorcism complete. "Manfred helps her up from her meditative pose. "Your home is now inhospitable to the dead. Thank you very much."  

"Thank you, Fiji. " Eve thanked her.

 Manfred then notices something wrong. “Um, Fiji? What's that?"  

Fiji and Eve then looked at what Manfred was looking at and saw the Devil's Net is dripping blood, which meant that an extremely evil entity was still present in the house.

 "Something real evil is still in here. You see anything?" Fiji asks the two.

Manfred and Eve look around and Manfred replies, “No. No, the spirits are all gone. "  

Eve then noticed the floor, “Not all of them. It's, uh, it's still here. "

   
The ominous red glow was still peaking from beneath the floorboards. A demonic voice begins to call out to Fiji, which only she can hear. It says it wants her, throwing both Manfred and Eve out the house and locking the door behind him. As Manfred and Eve manage to break their way back in, they discover that the entity has full control over Fiji's body, bending her backwards then dragging her across the floor and up against the wall. Manfred looks back towards the mirror to see the hellish dimension, in which a demonic hand reaches up Fiji's leg.

Manfred needed someone a lot more powerful than himself to help, so retrieve his great-great-great-great grandmother's skull from the RV while Eve stays behind with Fiji. Manfred calls out to his ancestors, using their power to banish the Demonic entity, resulting in Fiji's release and the incineration of the skull.

Eve then looks at the mirror and her eyes glow purple cracking it into pieces, making sure that the evil was gone. Fiji looks over to the Devil's Net, seeing that his house has been cleansed.

 Fiji sniffled to hold back her tears before turning to look at the devil's net. “It’s gone," she informs them. "Your home is cleansed now." Manfred looks around and sees nothing, "Yeah. Yeah, the house is quiet. "

Eve helps Fiji to her feet and asks, "Are you hurt? " 

"No, no, I don’t think so. " Fiji replied to reassure the two. " That was, that was not good.I need to go home and take a bath. " Before she could take another step she was stopped by Manfred. "I wouldn't leave. “Manfred paused before saying, "The Rev escaped. " 

After hearing what she had just heard the only words that Fiji could say was, "What?"

In light of this new information, Fiji calls Olivia, who hadn't yet found the Rev. Fiji then says that she, Manfred, and Eve will search the ranches for him. The three of them were in Fiji's car driving to another ranch still looking for the Rev.

 Manfred askes, "What do we do if we find him?"

"Bring him home," Fiji replied, hoping in her mind that is the only option.

Manfred thought he saw something out the window then. "Wait, stop." Fiji then pulled over.

Eve tries to get a view through the window and asks, "Do you see him?"

Manfred didn't take his eyes off the sights through the window. "No, but I think he's been here."

The three got out of the car, Manfred leading them since he had the flash light and followed the trail of blood that led them to a freshly dead animal, Manfred then asks, "Should we wait until Olivia and Lemuel get here?" 

"They'll be here any second," Fiji assured him.  


The three didn’t walk that much further till they heard the deep growl of the Weretiger as it walked out of the bushes with a snarl. The Weretiger continued to get closer but stopped in its tracks when a small red dot appeared in front of it, and stopped and tried to catch it. The three then heard a gun cock and turned to see Olivia with her rifle aimed at the Weretiger.  Seconds later Lem appeared next to them and asked, "Are you three okay?"

"We're good," Fiji replied

Lem moved towards the Weretiger and circling it as the Were did the same to him.

Lem then spoke trying to help the tiger, "Emilio. We've been friends for a long time." 

Olivia trying to keep her aim on the tiger, but when she spoke her voice was breaking, “It’s not the Rev. "

Manfred with a confused look on his face asks Fiji, "Why isn't she shooting him?"

"No, he's a friend. " Fiji paused before finishing her answer. "Most days. "

The Weretiger lunges at Lemuel, biting into his neck and making Lem cry out in pain before being thrown off. Eve ran to help Lem but he turned to her and said, "No, no, no, I'm okay. " Olivia keeping her aim on the Weretiger, her rifle filled with silver bullets, cried, "This needs to end."

"Olivia, you can't!" Fiji shouted back.

"Don't!" Olivia said strongly but she started to break. “He would want this."

Lemuel sped in front of her and shielding the Weretiger. "Stop. No."

The rifle in Olivia’s hands begins to shake as she says, "The Rev didn't want to hurt anyone."

"Like you said…" Lemuel turned around to face the Weretiger "…he's not the Rev." Lemuel lured the Tiger his way. The Weretiger lunged at him, and knocked Lem down and he was a bit too weak to get back up.

The Were then turned to face the three and walked towards them in a stalk motion. Eve saw Olivia keeping her aim and readied to put the trigger, Eve knew that at any second Olivia was going to shoot. Eve decided that it was time to take action, her eyes turned purple. The roots of the trees grab the Weretiger’s legs as it lunged at them and pulled it to the ground. Eve carefully walked up to the Weretiger as it struggled to get free, she then crouched to its level, with her eyes still glowing purple, she looks into the Weretiger’s eyes making it fall asleep. Eve’s eyes turned back to normal before she faced the group with perplexed faces.

"How, how were you able to do that? " Fiji asked

"What are you? " Olivia asked in a hostel tone.     


Eve sighed and then answered their questions, “I have a few tricks of my sleeve and as for what I am, let’s just say I’m complicated. "

With Lem back on his feet they were able to get the Weretiger into Olivia’s car and back to the church. As the sun rose the following morning, they said good bye to Lem and begun to watch the Rev transformed back into his human form. Naked from the transformation, Manfred covers the Rev up with his jacket.

   
Olivia slowly approaches and kneels beside the man, and places a hand on his shoulder.

"You're back," she said softly, "It's okay now."

The Rev replies in a quiet tone, "No, it's not. I know what I did."

But unbeknownst to them, joe was watching them from a window of Strong Angel Tattoo. Later in the afternoon Eve went to check on the Rev and saw him giving a prayer for officer Gomez as he laid her to rest. Eve then joined him when he had finished.

"Hey. " Eve greeted

"Been a long time since I've killed. "

"It's not your fault. The deputy probably shouldn’t have been here, let alone cut the chains and open the cellar. She paid the price and is at much to blame. " 

"Well, the Weretiger is me. Before coming to Midnight, I spent a lot of time alone. Tigers are solitary, but humans… "   
"Not so much. " Eve finished 

"It's hard, reconciling both sides. That's why I'm a reverend. I suppose I'm trying to find meaning in this duality. "

 "I know how that’s like. Any luck with it? " Eve asked

"Yes. Being a reverend led me here. This is my home, my purpose. And I don't want to lose it."

 "You won’t. We won't let that happen. "

 "Last night was different. Usually, a bull is enough to sate me. This time it wasn't. Something is different. And that scares me. " Eve then grabbed the Rev’s arm to stop him from leaving. The rev looked at Eve and knew that she wanted to tell him somethine.

Eve sighed, “Ever since I was a little girl, i knew that there was this side of me that was powerful but also dangerous and it was always going to be there. When Xylda took me in I was afraid that I was going to hurt her but she told me that you need to accept it so that you can control it. " she took a breath and looked into the Rev’s eyes before saying, "So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that you’re not a bad guy. " She then kissed the Rev on his check and then turned around and walked away leaving behind her a baffled Rev. 

That evening, Manfred and Eve heard a knock on the door. Manfred got up to answer it and saw Bobo with a sign.

"You’re out. " Manfred said stating the obvious. Eve got from her seat and hugged Bobo.

"That’s right, " Bobo answered as he walked in. "This is my combo housewarming and 'thanks for saving my ass' gift." He then walked to the fireplace placed the sign on top of the mantle and it read "Palmistry: Psychic & clairvoyant. "

Manfred chuckled, "That's awesome, thanks."

"Oh, yeah," Bobo said as he straightened it. "Fiji told me what you did." Bobo turned around and faced Manfred and Eve.

   
"Um…" Manfred began but Eve stepped in and said, "Aubrey, she wanted to tell you the truth. Her husband asked her to get to know you, but what she felt for you, Bobo. That was real."

"Thanks for that," Bobo said quietly, "But the woman I love, she didn't exist."

There was then a knock at the door that grabbed all of them turned and saw creek poking through the door.

"Bobo. " Creek said with a smile filled with surprise. "Glad to have you back." She then gives Bobo a hug. 

"Nice to be back. " Bobo responded before he took his leave.  

"I'm just checking. How's the stitches? "Creek asked as she touch his stitched up side.

 Manfred hisses in pain and lightly smiled, "Painful. " The two then looked each other before they heard a cough and turned to see Eve sitting on the couch with a grin.

 "Well, I can tell where this is going. So, I’m just gonna head out. " Eve got up from her seat and went over to the door, she then turned to the two and said, "See you in the morning you crazy kids. "  

Eve then left and shut the door behind her leaving her brother and Creek to have the alone time they wanted. She went to the Rv but as her hand reached the door she decided to go to her 1963 airstream trailer instead. she stepped inside and inside her trailer were weapons, books, powders, herbs all of kind, which are used against evil both supernatural and not. Eve grabbed a book from the shelve took a seat at the desk in the trailer and begins to read about the history of Midnight, Texas.


	3. Lemuel, unchained

Eve was sitting on the couch, drinking a beer, and reading a book. It was late at night when her brother and his "girlfriend" had decided to have a little rendezvous in his bedroom. Eve looked up from her book and saw Creek leaving her brother's room.

"Hey." Eve greeted. Creek then yelped a little in surprise letting Eve know that she didn't see her.

"Sorry, I just, I didn't see you there." Creek stumbled

Eve smiled, "It's fine, not the first time it's happened."

"So how long have you been there?"

"Oh, not long. I just got here a few minutes ago." Eve paused before saying, "'Oh, Manfred. Oh, yeah.'"

Creek's face then became full of embarrassment at what she had just heard, and this made Eve laugh.

"Relax Creek, I'm just messing with you."

Creek sighed in somewhat relief, "Okay, I'll see you later." She then continued her walk to the door, Eve got up from her seat and met Creek at the door.

"You know I could use a walk, maybe I can walk you home and then just walk around town for a bit."

"Sure, that's fine. Midnight can get pretty scary at night."

The two then left the house and Eve closed the door behind them.

"So how did you end up with Manfred?" Creek asked

"I ran away from home when I was a kid, lived on the streets for a few, Xylda found and took me in, and not long after that Manny joined us, and the rest is history," Eve answered

As the two passed the pawn shop they heard a whistle. Creek dismissed the noise and quickened her pace. Then her phone chimed and she saw a new message from Manfred. Eve, on the other hand, was on high alert and knew that something evil was near. The two then noticed a man walking towards them.

"Hello to you, baby doll." The man said as he came closer. Eve and Creek were able to make out the features of a native American man with long hair, "What are you doing all alone, sweetness?"

"Walking home." Creek answered as she took a step back, "and if I'm not there in three minutes, people are gonna come looking for me."

"Ah, is that so?" The man asked

"I'm not scared of you." Creek said

"Oh, really? How about now?"

the man opened his mouth to reveal his fangs and then grabbed Creek by the neck, making her Scream. Eve's eyes then turned purple and she punched the vampire with a right hook to the jaw, the man flung a few feet landing in the street, Lem then stood next to the girls.

After seeing what was going on, Lem then went after the vampire, grabbed him by the collar, barred his fangs, and ready to kill but he stopped as he got a closer look of the vampire's face, "Zachariah?"

"Lem." The man replied smiling, "it's been a long time."

It seems that Lem was not the only Midnighter to hear Creel's screams.

Manfred came running up to his sister and creek, and asked, "What happened."

"Nothing. I'm fine." Creek said trying to reassure him.

"Well, besides the obvious," Eve gestured to the vampire," but yeah we're fine."

"You don't seem fine," the Rev said coming to a stop next to Eve

"You look scared," Bobo said standing next to them.

"Didn't mean to scare anyone." He said

"What did you do to her?" Manfred questioning him about Creek.

"Nothing, but I would like to know what the Amazon over there did to me?" he asked pointing to Eve.

"I punched you," Eve smirked, "and believe me when I say that was just a love tap." Her eyes turned purple but only for a second which was enough for Zach to know what she was.

Lem raised his hands, "Uh, everyone, calm down."

"Lem, you know these folks?" Fiji asked.

"Zach's an old friend," Lem replied

"Yeah, nice friends," Creek said in a sarcastic voice.

"My apologies." Zach said, "We were just having a little fun. If I knew you were a friend of Lem's, I— "

Lem then interrupted him and stated, "Everyone in midnight is a friend."

Zach nodded as he patted Lem on the shoulder, "I'm not looking for trouble."

"Then why are you here?"

"Looking for you," Zach replied, "We were passing through on the way to Mazatlan, thought we'd stop for the night. Place brings back memories…when we were all together."

"That was a long time ago," Lem said.

"Too long," Zach added.

"One night, but that's it."

"Of course, we'll be out of here before morning." Zach guaranteed

The Midnighters broke off and left for the church when Lem left with Zach to show him around. Once they had all gathered Manfred asks, "A nest of vampires dropping in. This an everyday thing?"

"Lem's the only vampire I've ever seen." Creek replied

"Me too. Things are getting really weird here, Aubrey and the sheriff getting killed." Bobo added.

"The Rev getting out", Fiji turned to Eve and Manfred, "Demons under your house."

"And, uh, vampires. Delightful." Manfred said

"Vampires avoid Midnight," The Rev stated, "Lemuel's an energy leaching vampire."

Fiji laughed, her eyes on the floor as she spoke, "Olivia told me all about how she and Lem—" she looked up and paused, seeing everyone looking at her, "Never mind. Go, go on."

The Rev looked back at Manfred and Eve before continuing, "Lemuel can kill vampires, which is why they stay away."

"And Lem and Zach," Fiji started, "they seem close."

"Please, they're vampires. They see people as walking blood banks."

"Eve's right," Bobo agreed, "Even though Lem vouched for him, we can't let our guard down."

"They said they'd be gone by sunrise," Creek reminded them.

"If anything happens, we'll gather here. The church is sanctuary." The Rev informed them.

"FYI, garlic, holy water, them needing to be invited inside. All lies," Fiji informed them.

"So how do you kill them?" Manfred asked.

"Silver's poison, debilitates them. But to end their lives, it's either sun or a wooden stake through the heart." The Rev answered.

"Awesome."

After the meeting, everyone left the church. Manfred and Eve waited near the restaurant for Olivia because of a plan that Manfred has, the two then approached her.

"Olivia," Manfred called out.

Olivia sighed in annoyance, "What?"

"Lem's friends you trust them?" Manfred asked.

"I don't know them. I don't know you two either." Was the reply

"I know a grift when I see it."

"Takes a con man to know a con man?" Olivia commented

"Maybe. But either way, those vampires are up to something."

"Yeah." Olivia sighed, "You have my attention", she stated.

"We can talk to dead people," Manfred gestured to him and eve, "Vampires make dead people. If there are ghosts in there," he nodded to the bus, "maybe they can tell us what Zach and his friends are up to. I need a look out…"

"Why won't you use Eve as your look out?" Olivia asked

"Well, last time she disappeared on me." he answered.

"Please, Manny it's not like you were in any real danger. So, let's just get this over with." She turned to Olivia, "Unless you really think they're not dangerous."

When the three got to the bus they saw that it was locked. Manfred turned to eve and said, "Eve?" as he gestured to the locked door.

"Like you have to ask." Was the reply. Eve pulled out a lock picking kit from her jacket and within twenty seconds the lock was picked.

"Impressive," Olivia commented. "Where'd you learn to pick a lock?"

"My grandfather taught me when I was four," Eve answered.

They then entered the Vampire bus and begin their search.

"No vamps," Olivia told them.

"Not sensing any spirits yet," Manfred informed Olivia

"Same," Eve informed her brother and Olivia

Eve reached the back of the bus, with Manfred and Olivia just a few feet behind her, as she opened the door.

"Oh, My, God," she exclaimed.

Olivia followed her into the back room, "A ghost?"

"Worse."

They all took in the sight of a girl lying down hooked up to an IV machine that was drawing her blood.

"They bled her to death," Olivia said

they became surprised when the dead girl moved, Manfred then replied to what Olivia said, "Not quite."

Manfred then knelt down to speak to the girl and told her. "We need to get you out of here."

"Why?" she asked with a weak voice.

Eve looked at the girl. "Look at where you are." She said sarcastically and gestured around the room.

"You lost a lot of blood," Olivia explained.

"I didn't lose it. I gave it. I hitched a ride back in Tulsa. I'm having a blast," the girl explained before she passed.

The three then entered the restaurant and they saw Lem slow dancing with a female vampire.

Lem then saw them and stopped dancing, "Olivia, Manfred, Eve, What's up?" He questioned.

"You should know, that blood bag Zach's carrying—" Olivia began.

"It's from a girl they're keeping in the back of their bus." Manfred finished.

"They're draining her," Olivia accused.

The female vampire that Lem was dancing with became upset and spoke, "You were snooping around our bus?"

Olivia starred her down and firmly said, "You are in my town."

It's okay, Pia," Zach told a female vampire named Pia, "Can't blame them for being suspicious. We're used to it. Girl on the bus, her name's Tiffany. She's a groupie."

"It's true. It's a thing." Lem defended.

"A thing?" Olivia questioned

"Zach and Pia can't drain energy like I can. They need blood. Groupies are the most humane way, a willing food supply." He explained

"Apparently, Vampires have a very different definition of humane. She can barely move." Eve stated.

"A stop at the Waffle House and Tiffany will be as good as new," Zach dismissed.

Pia spoke up next, her words directed at Olivia, "It's a hard thing to understand since you're not one of us."

Lem looked uncomfortable and cleared his throat, and both he and Olivia looked at each other.

"All right then, enjoy your reunion," Manfred said as he backed away but stopped when he saw that Eve wasn't moving.

Manfred and Eve were still in earshot when Lem said, "I need a minute with Olivia."

Just as Eve turned to leave she was meet by Zach with a smile on his face.

He looked Eve up and down before he spoke, "I know that mine kind and your Kind have a pretty rough history, but maybe we can put that behind us and have some fun."

Eve knew what Zach meant, "I don't know what you're talking about?" she lied. She tried to walk past him and he grabbed her arm making her stop.

"They don't know, do they?" he asked slyly and let her go.

Manfred comes over to Eve's side and put his hand on her back, "Come on, Eve." He ushered. Just as they were almost at the door Eve felt something hit her butt. She turned around and saw Zach with a smug face, she then grabbed his arm, flipped him over her shoulder and pinned him to the ground by placing her hand around his neck. Then the right half of Eve's face became decayed.

Zach smiled at what was before him, even as Eve tried to kill him by choking him. Manfred grabbed Eve by her shoulders and tried to pull her away.

"Eve, not here. Remember, you don't want to be feared and looked at like a monster."

Eve's anger began to fade as her brother's word sank in, her face returned to normal and she released her hold on Zach.

"Do that again and I'll make you walk out in the sun." Eve threatened Zach. She looked at him with so much pure hatred that her eyes are purple.

"I'm sure you will." He said slyly

Once they left the restaurant they returned to their Rv, once inside they had begun to discuss the nest of vampire in midnight with Xylda.

"All vampires are killers." Xylda insisted

"Except for Lem?" Manfred questioned.

"He's the exception. He always has been, but make no mistake, this nest is dangerous. You are food." She explained. "And Eve is more in danger than anyone else, especially now since they know what she is."

"Lem said they changed. People do." Manfred reasoned.

"You sure you wanna bet your life on it, Manny?" Eve asked her brother.

"You two need to protect yourselves," Xylda added.

There was then a noise that captured their attention they turned their heads and saw vampires hanging around.

Turning back to his grandmother and asked, "Remind me again why you thought we'd be safe here?"

"Midnight's safe," Xylda defended, "You just might have to fight to keep it that way." She looked towards her Granddaughter, "And Eve I want you to go to the church."

"Why?"

"Because vampires can't enter there", Xlyda reasoned, "and I don't want you to get hurt or worse, please Eve."

Eve sighed, "Fine, I'll go if it will help you relax." She then left.

As she made her way to the church she saw the Rev entering. Eve hadn't talk to him since they talked and she kissed him on the cheek. Just as she was about to enter the church she sighed and said, "I can't believe I'm doing this", when she entered she saw the Rev and joe, and decided to be quiet.

"I don't think I've ever seen you in my church before."

"First time for everything," Joe replied. "Chuy's in El Paso. NailCon."

"No one comes here for company. Sanctuary, confession, yes." The Rev said, "I'm assuming it's the latter."

Joe sighed, "The reason you haven't seen me here before…" the reverend looked at him questioningly when he paused and it took a moment for Joe to continue, "I'm fallen. I once was an angel."

"And now?" He asked.

"Now I'm living a grounded life with someone I love. And it's a life I want to protect." Joe replied.

"And you think the nest threatens that," the reverend filled in the blanks.

"Vampires are just the beginning of the threat," Joe warned.

"I guess when an angel comes heralding a warning, I suppose I should listen."

"Fallen angel. I'm speaking to you as a neighbor and a friend."

"And a reverend…" the Rev said, "who will hear your confession and keep your secret."

Joe hesitated for a moment before speaking, "The veil that Midnight sits upon, it's fraying…and evil is being drawn here. You've felt it, haven't you?"

"Last time I turned, the hunger was insatiable." The Rev paused before asking, "So what do we do about this?"

Joe shook his head. "There's no we. Chuy and I may not be here much longer. And after we're gone, someone needs to know the truth, 'cause there will come a time when Midnighters are gonna have to make a choice. To leave or to fight."

Eve stepped out of her hiding place and knew that the men were still unaware of her.

"Well, I was originally just going to come in here and figure out a plan to get rid of the vampires, but this is way more interesting."

The two men turned their heads to the voice that drew their attention and they saw Eve. The look on Joe's face was that of worried of what Eve might do.

Joe stood to explain, "Eve, I know what you just heard is—" Eve interrupted.

"A little strange. Believe me, I've heard and seen a lot of stranger stuff then a veil opening to hell. I mean I once tracked down a Lamia in Portland and those things are rarely seen outside Greece, and don't worry I won't tell anyone about the veil and you being an angel." Joe became relaxed and comforted by what Eve had said.

"Thank you, Eve," Joe said

"Don't mention it, but I think we should focus on the vampires."

At that moment Manfred came running into the church scared and winded, "They killed the hardware store guy."

"His name was Henry. He was a good man." The Rev stated, "They lied. They killed him, and anyone in town could be next."

"I guess waiting for sunrise, isn't a great a plan anymore, huh?" Eve questioned

"We need to warn everyone," Joe said to the Rev.

The Rev agreed. "It's time for Mass."

Manfred and Eve returned to their trailer, and all the while Manfred tries to calls Creek.

She's not answering," Manfred said with frustration, "Why would they lie to Lem?"

"Can't help it. Vamps are bloodthirsty and cruel." Xylda replied

"Lem said they were friends," Manfred tires defends

"Once. A lot has happened since. There's something you need to know." Xylda then went on to explain that when she was young she came to midnight, met Lem, and the falling out he had with Zachariah. Lem had grown tired of killing and she offered a way to change, to drain energy, so he wouldn't end his eternal life. she then told them that Lem made the vampire nest leave midnight.

Manfred became worried as he looked at the vampires that were loitering. "We need to warn Creel."

Manfred then jumped in the driver seat and drove to the Lovell's. Manfred and Eve stepped out of the RV.

"Ready to be a knight in shining armor, Manny." Eve joked as they walked to the door.

"Now is not the time Eve." He then pounds on the door.

The door then opens with Creek getting ready to stake. Manfred and Eve took a step back in surprise and not to get staked.

"Whoa, whoa. It's me." Manfred said as he and Eve came in the house, and closed the door behind him. "I've been calling."

"Why? What are you doing here?" Creek asked.

"it's the vampires, they've attacked someone," Eve replied

"Y'all need to come with us," Manfred added

Creek's father enters the room, both drunk and disorderly, and said, "You again. I don't want you coming around here."

"Dad, you need to listen to him." Creek tires to reason.

"No, I don't." Mr. Lovell was knocked out by Manfred punching him in the face.

"Sorry, there's no time. We need to get somewhere safe, now." He said

Manfred, Eve, Creek, and Conner loaded Mr. Lovell's body into the RV, and drove off to join the others at the church.

"If he didn't like Manfred before…" Conner said as he looked at his father's unconscious body knowing that this will only make his father dislike Manfred even more.

"I know." Creek agreed.

Mr. Lovell then gain consciousness," What's going on?"

"Dad, just stay back," Creek said trying to keep him down.

"Hang on." Manfred said as he made a hard turn and ran over a couple of vampires.

"He killed them." Mr. Lovell said in shock.

"You sure about that? Turn around." Eve calmly said

Mr. Lovell looked back and saw the vampires standing back up.

"They're vampires, Dad." Conner stated

"Vampires?" He questioned

"I'm taking you to the church, where vampires can't go. So, shut up, sit down. You're welcome." Manfred said before a vampire then latched onto the Rv and attacked him through the window, and Creek stakes the vampire. With the road being blocked off by the massive hoard of vampires they needed to go somewhere else," Change of plans. Hold on."

Manfred then changed the route to his house and when they reached it urged everyone to get inside, "Go. Go, go, go, go, go!"

Once they made it inside Manfred turned around and saw a vampire running towards them, he held his wooden stake up ready to stake the vampire but just as it was at the doorway it was repelled back and landed on the ground.

"What was that?" Creek asked in shock.

"Oh, right." Manfred looked at the confused looks on the Lovell's faces and went on to explain, "Uh, Fiji made this place, um, inhospitable to the dead."

"Thanks, Fiji." She said

after everyone calmed down Creek got a bag of ice and took her father to the bedroom so that he could recover from being knocked out. A little while later Manfred got a call from Bobo saying that Olivia was injured and can't carry out the plan.

Creek, Manfred, and Eve stared out the window, looking to their town, which had been taken over, and contemplating their next course of action

"We can't just sit here and wait for Lem to die." Creek said with a bit of sadness.

From the window, Manfred could see Xylda in the RV, which gave him an idea that would supposedly save Lemuel. Manfred entered his room, where Mr. Lovell waited for an apology after Manfred assaulted him. As Manfred grabbed a container from the closet, he told Shawn that if his plan failed, he wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. He then receives a call from Rev, telling him that his plan relied on retrieving the light from Olivia. With the wooden container taken from his closest, Manfred went to the door and saw Eve and Creek still looking out the window.

"Hey, Eve." He said catching her attention, "I might need some backup— "

"When have you not." She interrupted

"In case things go south." He added

Eve could see the worrying in his eyes, "Hey, don't worry Manny. We can take down those vampires, so, c'mon let's show them that you don't mess with Midnighters."

Manfred then headed out into the streets of Midnight, where he was instantly surrounded by vampires. "I have something for Zach. He wants the power that Lem has, I can give it to him." They then kept their distance from him. "That's right. Back off."

While inside, Eve and Creek kept an eye on her brother when Mr. Lovell came into the room and commented, "He's an idiot."

"He's also out there trying to save Lem." Creek said defending Manfred.

"I watch what you say about him if I were you." Eve said to Mr. Lovell

"Oh, and why's that?" He questioned Eve turned her head to face him and said, "Because he's the only family I have left and the one in this world that doesn't look at me like I'm a monster." Her eyes then turned purple, only for a second to spook Mr. Lovell, before looking back at her brother.

"Zach! Come on out! I know what the gypsy girl did to Lem! I'm Xylda's grandson! I'll make you as powerful as Lem! Come on! Want to make a deal?" Manfred yelled.

Zach then came out of the hotel of the restaurant, with a couple of vampires behind him, and stops in the middle of the road. "What do you want in return?" He asked.

"Leave Midnight." Manfred said bluntly.

"That's not gonna happen."

"Well, how about letting me and the rest of the town, Lem included, walk out of here alive?" Manfred reasoned "

"Fair enough." Zach paused. "But your sister stays."

"No, no, I won't let you ta-." Manfred was then interrupted by someone saying his name.

"Manny." He then looked behind Zach and saw Eve.

Zach turned to face Eve and looked at her with a smile, "You're just full of surprises, are you?"

"Eve, you don't have to do this." He tried to reason with his sister.

Eve quickly took a glance at the sky seeing Joe fly above them, landing in the bell tower, and then at her brother, "Yes I do, Manny. Now just give Zach the power that Lem has so you can get everyone out of here."

Manfred handed Zach the wooden container. He opened it only to discover it was empty.

"What is this?" Zach questions

"A grift." Manfred replied with a smile and Eve along with him knowing that they had fooled Zach.

Zach chuckles and said, "Then you're a dead man." However, before they could get any closer, Joe shines down the Sunrise Crystal from above, incinerating the nest, Zach included.

Manfred and Eve saw the sun raising and were reminded of Lem being in danger.

"Lem." The two said under their breath.

They rushed into the hotel and found Olivia in one of the abandoned rooms, holding her wrist and looking out the window. Next to her were chains and they had begun to fear the worst.

"Did he make it?" Manfred asked.

Olivia only nodded.

Manfred helped support Olivia as they left the room. The Rev opened the doors to the church for the locals to leave, at the same time the Midnighters: the Lovell family, Fiji, and Bobo gathered in the street.

"Olivia got to him in time," Manfred announced to the others, who all seemed relieved.

Joe joined the group and Manfred turned to speak with him as the others walked away, except for Eve who was close behind her brother.

"How'd you get the light up there?" Manfred asked.

Joe shook his head, "Snuck in. You and Eve really stepped up, risking your lives like that." Joe lightly placed his hand on Manfred's arm, "Thank you. You and Eve saved everyone here."

Manfred nodded before walking away and Eve followed him. Later that night Manfred and Eve went to the apartment above the pawn shop to check on Lem. When they reached the door, Manfred knocked, not long after Olivia opened the door.

"Hey, uh, just checking in." Manfred said

"How's he doing." Eve asked

"See for yourself." Olivia let the two in and showed them to Lem, who was sitting in a chair in the bedroom of the apartment.

"Feeling better?" Manfred asked Lem.

"Much. Thank you." Was the reply.

"Sorry about what happened." Manfred said sympathetic tone. "Sucks to lose an old friend."

"Zack was no friend." Olivia stated as she sat down on the bed.

"Like Xlyda did many years ago, both of you saved my life. I'm grateful." Lem thanked the two.

"I'm just glad to find out the truth. "Lem became confused at what Manfred said. "I was worried you hooked up with my grandma." He clarified.

"Oh god no." Lem said with a cringe.

Eve looked at her brother and hit his arm. Manfred's phone buzzed and he pulled it out of his pocket and the caller ID read Hightower, and said, "just a client. I should get to work." He and Eve then took their leave.

"Hey." Olivia called out, making the two stop and turn to her. "I owe you two one."

Manfred looked down at his phone and back up at Olivia, "I may take you up on that someday." He said and then he and Eve left.

Once they returned to their home, Eve knew something was wrong and she knew that it had to be Hightower. She decided that it was too late in the night and to discuss it in the morning, and went to sleep on the couch, knowing that they were going to face their past sometime soon.


	4. Sexy beast

Eve sat on the couch, eating cereal, and waiting for her brother and Creek to finish with their shower. After some time she heard the water stop, her brother and creek talking, and then creek walked out wearing her underwear and bra, and carrying her clothes.

Creek froze when she saw Eve, who just smiled and waved at her, before continuing her walk to Manfred's room. Eve gets up from her seat and walks to her brother, and leaned against the door frame.

"You know, you should really lock the door i almost walked in on you and Creek." But Manfred didn't respond just looked at his phone. She looked over his shoulder and saw that there were many voicemails and all of them left by Hightower.

"It's not going to stop, Eve." He turned to her. "It's not going to until he has my head."

Eve looked at her brother and sighed,"Alright, get dressed and we'll discuss this in the Rv with grandma." She then left and waited for her brother in the Rv. As she sits down, Xylda appears next to her. A little while later Manfred joins and sits across from them.

Manfred takes some pills before saying, "I'm not sure moving here was a smart play."

"I thought you liked it. I've been seeing that cute waitress drop by." Xylda joked.

"The online-psychic thing is fine, but I need to make some serious money.

Hightower's not letting up." He stated

"Well, how about your old clients?" Xylda asked.

Eve smiled and said," Yeah, i bet all those rich widows would love a little one-on-one with "The Great Manfredo."

"I doubt Bitzi Van Der Huff's gonna drive five hours to chat with her favorite dead husband in a crappy RV."

Xylda looked at the Rv with a hurtful look on her face from what Manfred had said.

"You know that my A-list clients expect a certain level of pomp and circumstance Nice hotels, stocked mini bar. Makes them feel they're getting their money's worth." He explained

"Don't fret, Manny. I got a feeling your luck's gonna change real soon." Xylda said hopefully

"It better." Manfred then grabbed his pills and took some more.

"That ain't gonna help." Xylda said with some worry for her grandson.

"Actually, it does. You didn't hear Hightower's latest message." Manfred grabbed his phone and played a voicemail from Hightower.

An eerie tune started to play and then a voice saying,"You remember that tune? It'll be the last thing you hear before I-"

Manfred cut off the voicemail,"He wants my heart stopped, on a platter."

"Manny." Eve said while her grandmother said, "Stop it."

"Hightower's old school. I'm worried this isn't just about money. He wants his pound of flesh."

"You settle this debt, he'll calm down." Xylda tried to erasure hm.

"And even is you can't, hey you got me." Eve added

"Yeah, easier said than-" Manfred was interrupted by pounding on the door. He walked to the door with caution, when he opened it there was a woman.

"You the psychic?" She asked

"Depends who's asking."

"The guy at the pawnshop said you're the real deal. I need to find my brother. Not sure I believe in all this, but I got to try something." She answered Manfred

"Yeah, well, finding a missing person's tough." He said

"Find him, I'll pay you five grand."

Manfred's eyes widen and says with interest,"And it's also my specialty. Please, step into my office"

The woman walks in but soon stops when she sees Eve.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know you already have a client." She said

Getting up from her seat Eve said, "Actually i'm not a client, I'm his sister."

"Are you part of this whole psychic thing too?" She questioned

Eve chuckled, "Yes and no. I can talk to the dead, but i'm more like security should things go south. Please sit."

Manfred went to the cabinet and pulled out some candles as the woman started to speak, "The only time Ted visits our parents is to beg for money or steal something, but now that he's missing they're beside themselves. You ask me, he's probably holed up with some stripper again."

Putting the candles down, manfred says, "I need something of your brother's." Which earn a confused look from the woman.

"something meaningful to him. To give him a psychic impression, a clue as to where he is." Eve explained

The woman shook her head in disbelief but said, "Sure," handing over a ring from her finger she explained, "Ted's pinky ring. I took it as collateral last time I loaned him money. Will that do?"

Manfred took it and said,"I think so."

Manfred closed the curtains and then sat down, while Eve leaned against the Rv.

"Anything?" the woman asked.

Manfred and Eve both looked towards the front of the RV as they saw Ted's ghost appeared in the passenger seat. There were open and severe wounds on Ted's jaw and neck. Manny's face went slack.

The woman turned to see what they were staring at but she didn't see anything and she asked, "What is it?"

"Getting images," Manfred started saying as he and Eve watched Ted's ghost taking in his surroundings and then looking at himself.

"Does your brother work with heavy equipment?" Eve asked

"Ted doesn't even have a job."

"You can see me,"Ted's ghost said pointing at Manfred and Eve.

"Oh, yeah," Manfred said in an almost whisper.

"Pats," Ted's ghost saw his sister and moved closer to her, "Oh, Pats, you were right. I sucked as a brother, a son. It was all my fault. Should have never picked up that hot blonde."

"What hot blonde?" Manfred questioned.

"See? I told you." Pats laughed. Thinking that her assumption about her brother was right.

"Just at a rest stop," Ted explained, "One minute we're driving along. Next, something's eating me like a taco. And she stole my Caddy."

After Pats and Ted's ghost left, Eve and Manfred looked up possible strip clubs where they could find "Hot blonde" Ted's ghost talked about. The first strip club they went to was not good, they didn't find the Hot blonde and the manager got his arm broken by Eve after he tried to offer her a job.

Their next stop was called the "Boobie trap". They went in and found a bartender, and talked to him or at least tried to talk to him.

"I'm looking for a hot blonde. She was maybe driving a vintage red Cadillac." Manfred said but got no response from the guy and he walked away from them. "Okay, then. Thanks."

"Yeah, thanks for everything." Eve said sarcastically.

The two left the Boobie trap, Manfred crossed off it off and they re-entered the Rv,and tried the next strip club, and the next one, and the next one.

While driving the deserted Texas road, Manfred and Eve Come across a green muscle car and a red Cadillac at a rest stop. They got out of the Rv both of them armed, Manfred with a bat and Eve With her blades, and approached the red Cadillac. They saw blood stains on the front seat and on the trunk.

"You in there Ted?" Manfred sighed

They then heard running and singing coming from the restroom. They enter to find a woman cleaning herself off, as well a man dead and lying on the floor. The woman then notices them, but seems to focus her attention on Manfred.

"Oh, my. What's a girl to do around here? So many handsome many naughty men." She said with a wide smile

"You're not my type." Manfred said

"But you've been so bad. I can feel it. It makes me want to-" Manfred and Eve's eyes widen as the woman transforms right before them; her eyes changed color while several rows of sharp teeth grew in her mouth, which also widened beyond human capability.

She went in to attack Manfred but he hit her in the stomach with the baseball bat which knocks her back, allowing Manfred and Eve to escape while using the bat to lock the door behind him. They jump back in the RV and drive away. And while the woman manages to break free, they was too far gone for her to chase.

When they made it back to midnight, Manfred and Eve got Fiji, Creek, Joe, Chuy, and Lemuel to convene at Home Cookin', where Joe sketches a description of the unknown creature that attacked Manfred and killed at least two others. Joe showed the sketch to Manfred and Eve when he was done.

"More teeth." Eve told joe.

Joe added more teeth to the sketch but Manfred didn't seem satisfied and said, "Yeah, but more Rows of teeth, mouth open like this gaping hellhole. And a-a spider web tattoo on the shoulder."

"And she was…" Joe drew out.

"Eating…" Manfred replied, "people, yeah."

"Sounds like a succubus, which is odd," Lem told them. "I haven't seen one around here in over a century."

"Of course, a succubus. I knew it looked familiar," Eve said in realizion, "i hunted one of those a few years ago."

"A succubus?" Manfred questioned.

"Ancient supernaturals—hunters, rare," Lem stood and paced as he continued to explained, "They usually lie low and they have a perpetual glamour that lets them appear beautiful so they can seduce their prey."

"Prey? As in…men."

"Mm-hmm," Lem said as he took the seat at the head of the table, "But they only feed on men who've caused pain."

"Wonder why she came after you?" Chuy said as he looked at Manfred.

"Yeah, why?" Creek questioned

Manfred let out a nervous chuckle before he countered, "So no—no one here has ever caused anyone pain?"

"Fair enough," Joe said nodding to Manfred.

"The real question is, why now?" Lem asked, "Why would a succubus show up here acting so recklessly?"

Joe and Chuy exchange looks from across the table, knowing the reason why the succubus is here, but neither say anything.

"This succubus is leaving a trail of bodies," Joe spoke up.

"And bodies will bring the law back to Midnight, we can't have that," Lem elaborated.

"We need to stop her before she causes more damage." Chuy stated

Manfred nodded, "So how do we do that?"

"Dragon's breath…"Joe informed, "according to medieval folklore."

"And Wikipedia," Chuy added.

"Okay," Manfred acknowledged, "Short of finding a dragon, how do you stop a succubus? Eve, how did you do it?"

"Decapitation." The group the gave her questioning looks, "Well actually, i shot her multiple times, then stabbed her, fatally, but she was still alive so i cut her head off, but the head was still alive so i gave it to a friend of mine to look after it. I'm pretty sure by now it's dead." She clarified, "But i suggest we should find another way to stop her."

"I think I know," Fiji stated softly.

While Lem left to go get Olivia, everyone went over to Fiji's to see what her idea is.

Once the group made it into Fiji's house and they went into her herb garden, where she started collecting some herbs and explain, "I'm making a tincture. It's really just a fancy word for potion. This will remove the succubus's glamour." She tasted one of the herbs she clipped and chuckled, "Yeah. Without her looks, she will not be seducing anyone."

Creek walked closer to Fiji to get a better look at what she's doing.

"See," Fiji said giving the mixture a little shake, "it's really just basic chemistry."

"So we can slow her down, but how do we find her?" Manfred asked.

"She'll be looking for men," Joe warned.

"If a woman's trolling for guys around here, there's only one place to go on Thursday night." Creek shared her thought.

"Ladies' night." Eve said. "So, are there any popular bars around here?"

"It would be the Cartoon Saloon." Creek answered

"Alright, let's get going."

Once Lem had gotten Olivia they headed for the Cartoon Saloon. Outside of the Cartoon Saloon a few of them grabbed a tincture.

When they entered, Fiji turned around to address them, "We just need to get a drop of tincture in the succubus's mouth."

"Then we have to get her away from people, somewhere private before anyone notices what's happening," Lem suggested.

"We should split up. Blend in," Manfred told them.

"Sure," Lem said with sarcasm as he took Olivia's jacket, "Blend in."

They spread out over the room hoping to find the Succubus. Eve took a seat at the bar and kept her eyes open for the Succubus. One of the bartenders came up to her.

"What's your drink?" He asked

"Whiskey." Eve replied

The bartender handed her the drink and as she took a sip a man came up to her and sat next to her.

"It must've hurt when you fell?" He asked

"What do you mean?" Eve questioned him.

"When you fell from heaven."

"You think i'm an angel?" She questioned, smiling at him.

"Well, i suppose, i know an angel when i see one." He flirts

"Hate to break it to you, sweetie, but i'm certainly no angel." Eve's eyes turned purple and so did the man's. "You're going to forget this whole conversation and leave me alone." The man soon did what Eve said and left her alone to enjoy her drink.

Few minutes later, Manfred came up to her with Olivia beside him. Manfred's face was filled with concern.

"We need to go. Creek found the succubus in the parking lot."He said.

Them and the rest of the group rushed out of the bar and found Lem and Creek with the Succubus, choking, hand on her throat, and her fangs out.

"We need to get her out of sight," Joe told Lem.

"Got it," He replied before throwing the succubus over his shoulder and speeding away in a second.

They all headed for the Rv and got in before Manfred took off. They soon found Lem and the succubus, still gasping and then she fell on the ground, in a clearing.

Manfred pulled the RV into the clearing where Lemuel was standing watch over the Succubus who was contorting on the ground from the tincture.

They gathered around the Succubus as she started to contort and let out cries in pain.

"Is this normal?" Manfred wondered.

"Transformations are always painful," Fiji informed him.

A mist seemed covered the Succubus and stripped away the glamour, revealing what she really looks like. A horrid, wrinkled old hag in a ragged dress made from roots, moss, and webs, with yellow eyes and multiple rows of teeth.

"Good job on the tincture," Chuy complemented.

The succubus got to her feet and looked at Fiji, "What have you done to me?" She questioned in a raspy voice

"I took away your glamour, so you couldn't kill any more men," Fiji admitted.

"We had no choice," Lem told the Succubus. "Supernaturals lay low in these parts. Indiscriminate hunting of humans will not be tolerated."

she lunges at Lemuel, however, he was far superior in strength, throwing her into a tree with very little effort. The Succubus then fells limply on the ground and rolled. The slowly approach her believing that she is dead or unconscious.

"She dead?" Manfred questioned

The Succubus' eyes suddenly open and snarled. She lifted herself off the ground in an exorcist crab walk and they could hear the bones crunching as the succubus got on all four. She the crawled off into the surrounding trees and they lost sight of her.

"You all expected that?" Manfred asked the others.

Fiji shook her head. "No."

"That's a surprise," Lem confirmed.

"Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought of the exorcist while that happened." Eve said

"What do we do now?" Bobo questioned as he scanned the area.

"Creek! Help! "A male voice cried out.

"That's Connor," Creek said.

"Let's go," Bobo ordered.

Manfred suggested, "Everybody split up."

They split off, searching the woods in different directions; Bobo and Olivia. Chuy and Joe. Lemuel on his own. Manfred, Eve and Creek searched but when they fail to find him, Manfred heads back to the RV.

"Wait! 'i'm begging you. Don't hurt him." Creek cried as she and the others arrived.

The succubus turned to look at Creek , "He deserves it. They all do," she proclaimed, then turning back at Conner and getting ready to bite him.

"Let him go," commanded Olivia as she pointed her gun at the Succubus.

"We know what you're going through," Lem tried to reason, "I struggle with appetites that I need to keep in check. Maybe I can help."

"Hey," Manfred yelled as he got on behind the succubus, he told the others, "Grab him. Stay back."

Lem snatches Connor out of Gina's hands moments before Manfred incinerates her with an ignited propane tank from the RV.

"Closest thing to dragon's breath I could find." Manfred said as he set the tank down.

"Literally a hot mess," Olivia commented at the Succubus' remain which is melted black gunk before she and Lem left. Not long after, the rest of the group left and returned to midnight. But at the same time Eve wondered why the Succubus went after Conner.

The next morning, Pats came to their house after they told her they found Ted.

"Sorry about what happened to him." Manfred expresses his condolences.

"And that we didn't find him the way you hoped." Eve added

"Yeah, well we never would have found Ted's body without your help." Pats handed Manfred the check, "Thank you." She said before taking off.

The two started to go inside but they heard a whistle, they turned around and Creek.

"Hey." Manfred said as Creek joined them on the porch,"How's Connor?"

"He's good. He's grateful." She replied

"Wasn't a big deal." He claimed

"Shut up."

They start to kiss on the porch before moving into the house, leaving Eve shaking her head and says,"Like a couple rabbits", before going to her trailer.


	5. Unearthed

In the morning while Manfred was busy making coffee, Eve was busy sharpening things that, well, need sharpening.

He looked at Eve sitting on the couch as he poured the coffee and said, "You know, seeing you with all those knives can be scary."

She chuckled, "Well, do you know how many times that me and my scary knives have saved your trouble making butt."

There was a knock at the door. They look outside to find a Jack-in-the-Box sitting on their front porch. Manfred winds it up and it plays the same tune that was in Hightower's voicemail,until it pops open revealing the jack was defaced and with resemblance of , was a note, telling him to be at the old train station by 10 a.m, and don't bring Eve.

Later in the Rv, after they had gotten dressed, they informed Xylda of Hightower's gift.

"He knows where I live. Would've been easy enough to shoot me when I opened the door, but he didn't." He told Xylda

"He wants to make you suffer first, and he knows that Eve was with you." Xylda told him.

"Yeah, he's doing a pretty good job." He sighed with acknowledgment

"Hon, I wish I never got you into this mess."

"Didn't even have the decency to stay alive to help me out of it." He joked

This earned a light chuckle from Xylda but her grandchildren could see regret in her eyes.

"Truth is, I wanted that money as much as you," he stated, looking at the little note that came with the "Manfred" in the box, "Do I meet him?"

"No. He wants you to go without Eve, and with his type of power you'll be deadman. You ask for help," Xylda said

Eve looked at her brother and she knew that he wanted to leave, "Manny, i know that you want to leave Midnight but we can't this is our home, and it would make a certain waitress unhappy." She teased, "I'm gonna head over to Fiji's."

"Why?" Manfred asked looking up from the note.

"To get some Ague Root, Fiji said that she had some and i can pick it up today, and Manny don't do the whole 'when the going gets tough, we live in a house with wheels', please." she got up from her seat, hoping her brother heed her words, and left the Rv.

As she arrived at Fiji's, she heard the sound of engines reviving, specifically motorcycle engines. She turned around and saw the Sons of Lucifer, and noticed Bobo run out in the middle of the street. One of the Sons of Lucifer throws a molotov cocktail through the pawn's window setting it ablaze.

Bobo stands in the road, helpless as the bikers drive past just after bombing Midnight Pawn. Having noticed the fire, Creek, Eve, and Manfred join Bobo outside the shop.

"Lem and Olivia are still in there," Bobo told them before looking at Manfred and Eve, and taking off to the other side of the street, "Come on!"

Bobo went to the emergency box mounted on the build next to the fire hydrant and took the wrench to open the hydrant while Manfred and Eve grabbed the hose. Once they got the hose hooked up to the hydrant, Bob had begun to extinguish the fire, and soon enough the fire was out.

As Bobo was turning off the hose Creek asked him, "The Sons of Lucifer did this?"

But he didn't reply and went into the shop. Eve followed him to figure out why the Sons of lucifer bombed the pawn shop. Soon as they entered they immediately started coughing.

"Olivia!" Bobo called out.

They could hear her coughing from the back of the building and she soon came into their sight.

"Lem okay?" Bobo asked her.

"Yeah, he slept through it. He doesn't have to breathe. I do." She told them as she continued to cough and leave the shop.

"I'll be right out!" he said as he looked at the rest of the damage and walking toward the back of the building when someone spoke up.

"Just a big ol' distraction," said a male voice with southern accent.

Bobo and Eve looked around for who was speaking but saw no one.

"Who's there?" Bobo demanded angrily

"Down here, dimwit," the voice said.

They looked down and while Bobo raised is eyebrow at what they found, Eve seemed not to be all that fazed but it.

"Fiji's cat?" Bobo questioned

"Yep, and oh, my beeswax, the cat talks,"Mr. Snuggly said. "Now that that's out of the way, we got to move on. They took Fiji."

"What do you mean they took her?" He asked

"I mean they came in the store, put a thingy over her mouth, and dragged her out, she's gone," was the reply before the shop's phone started ringing.

Bobo went to the phone, and Eve followed and heard Mr. Snuggly say,"She feeds me. Can't be away for too long."

Eve stopped in her tracks and turned around to pick up Mr. Snuggly, and continued to follow Bobo. She arrived just in time to see him pick up the phone. Eve leaned against the door frame and listened.

"Bobo Winthrop." He answered. "Peter Lowry. Where's Fiji? What? What did you do with Fiji? Done. Where do you want to meet? No, wait, let's do this now. I can be ready-"

"He still thinks you killed her."

"Yep." He nodded

"Then you must know that this is a trap. I have to say using the one you love is a real dick move."

"How do you know?" He questioned

"Well for starters, I'm a bounty hunter. I know how to get my target, and plus you just told me with how much concern you had in your voice for Fiji." Eve explained, "So, just make a full proof plan before you go rescue her, and don't go all macho tough guy."

"I will." He lightly chuckled

"Good, and just don't be afraid to ask for help." Eve turned to leave the Pawn shop with Snuggly still in her arms.

When she arrived at her house she heard someone rummaging in her trailer. She put down Mr. Sunggly, pulled out one of her blades, opened the door ready to attack the intruder. The intruder turned to face her and it was Manfred that was rummaging through the trailer.

"Manny, what the hell are you doing?" She asked annoyed

"I'm looking for stuff to pawn, i have twenty one thousand but i need hundred. And i don't think Hightower would be too happy with me seventy nine thousand short."

When she heard the explanation, Eve came into the trailer and went up to one of the cabinets and pulled out a few thousand.

"Here. Now go and be careful." She said to Manfred as she gave him the money and gave him a hug.

"I will. Thanks." He said as he left. But what he didn't know was that Eve placed a coin in his jacket pocket, sort of a 'magic GPS' just in case she needed to save his butt, again.

Awhile before sundown, Eve grabbed her blades, a gun, and a male porcelain doll in a tuxedo. She left the trailer and headed over to the Midnight Pawn to help out Bobo. When she entered the pawn shop she heard Lem's voice boomed as they both entered the room.

"Who did this?" He said loudly.

Bobo answered, "The Sons of Lucifer. It's me they're after, so let me take care of it."

"It stopped being just about you when they bombed Olivia's home."Lem stated harshly.

The phone started to ring and Bobo headed toward the office to answer it. Lem watched him walk away and soon after both he and Eve followed Bobo.

"Tell me where and when," Bobo said forgoing any greeting.

Eve entered the room while Lem stopped at the door but both could hear the voice of Peter Lowry on the phone.

"Service road off Ranchville Drive. Come alone. We see anyone else, Curly's dead. You understand me?"

"Yeah. I understand," Bobo answered. There was a click on the line and Bobo hung up the phone.

"I remember when you first moved here," Lem mentioned, "Offered to buy this shop in cash." He stepped around to the front of Bobo's desk and looked at him, "I knew you were running from something bad. I didn't ask questions then. I'm asking now. What do they want from you?"

"Alright, I'll show you," Bobo told Lem." C'mon we'll take my truck." He turned to Eve and opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off.

"I'll sit in the back."

Bobo just nodded and they all got in his truck, drove to his house. Few minutes later the pulled up to the house, got out of the truck. They walked over to a underground bunker and Bobo opened the door.

Once they were down the stairs Bobo turned on the lights, and what Lem and Eve saw took them by surprise.

Crates of military-grade weapons sat in the middle with plastic wrapped stacks of money on top, and guns lining the wall.

"You're right," Bobo told Lem, "I was runnin'…from my family."

"This belonged to your family?" Lem asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, my parents are wealthy, well-connected, and, uh…" He grimaced, "white supremacists."

Lem looked at Bobo and said, "Oh." Lem opened a case and it revealed stamped gold bars.

"They had big plans for this stuff," Bobo told them, "Once I found out about it, I didn't want it on my conscience, so I left."

Lem spoke, "With their stuff?"

"Yeah," Bobo explained, "Story spread. This cache became a holy grail of sorts for the white power crowd. One of Lowry's guys must have figured out who I was."

"That's why he sent Aubrey," Lem concluded.

"Manfred said that Aubrey's feelings for me were real. That's probably why Lowry killed her. Now he's got Fiji."

"Not for long,"Lem said, "Let's bring her home." He started to walk to the ladder but Bobo stopped him.

"Lem, Eve, I got to go alone. If I don't they'll kill her. I can't take that risk." Bobo said

"I'm afraid that doesn't work for me."

"Me either." Eve siding with the vampire." Lem you can hide under the vehicle, while i be in the back with the cargo."

"But how will you hide yourself?" Bobo asked

"I have ways of hiding in plain sight." Was the reply. "Now, let's load this stuff up."

Once they were finished packing, they headed to the rendezvous point which is a crossroads in the middle of nowhere. When they arrived there was a group of bikers waiting for Bobo. Upon his exit of the vehicle, he recognizes one of the bikers from the time that they attacked him in the cell at the sheriff station. Bobo hands over the keys to the truck, allowing them to check for the weapons and money.

"Remember me? From the cell." The biker said

"I got everything Lowry asked for. It's all there."

Bobo hands over the keys to the truck, allowing them to check for the weapons and money. The lead biker hands the keys over to another biker of the group. When the biker unlocked the doors Bobo held his breath for in fear that the biker would discover Eve. When the doors open Eve's eyes turned purple as the biker looked.

"We're good." The biker yelled back to the others and rejoined them, causing Bobo to relax a bit.

"Now where is she?" Bobo demanded.

"Not here. We'll take you to her. After." Was the reply before he pulled out a baton and hits Bobo and knees him in the gut, knocking Bobo to the ground as the bikers collectively stomped on him. All the while, they were unaware that Lemuel was hiding under the truck, and of Eve's presence.

When they had stopped beating up Bobo, they started heading to The Sons of Lucifer start to base of operations, which looked like an abandoned warehouse and construction site. As the bikers start to unload the crates, a beaten and battered Bobo was taken to talk to Peter Lowry, face to face for the first time.

Peter thought he would be taller. Bobo had done everything he asked, now he only wanted Fiji, who was still alive, but this was more than what could be said for Aubrey. Peter admits that in a way, Bobo was right about Aubrey's death being on his hands. He should have never gotten her involved. Aubrey was so sweet; he assumed that she would wrap Bobo around her finger and get the information right out of him. Now, Peter has what he wants, that being the weapons and wealth, but he didn't have his wife to share it with. Regardless, it was time to see what Bobo had brought them. If he finds out that Bobo held out on him, Fiji would be buried alive. Peter then takes Bobo to Fiji.

As the bikers testing out their newly acquired weapons, this provided the perfect distraction for Lemuel and Eve. He comes out from under the truck and opens the door for Eve.

"You ready?" Lem asked her.

Eve grinned and jumped out of the truck,"Oh yeah." As she pulled out her karambit sage blades. The two the split up and almost immediately begin attacking the Sons of Lucifer members.

Lem and Eve took out the bikers one by one. As they finished things up Lem and Eve met up by the truck. Eve suddenly felt an arm wrapped around her neck and a gun pressed against her temple.

"Make one move and I'll shoot!" The biker barked at Lem.

Lem heeded the biker for in fear of Eve's safety and remained just a few feet in front of them.

"Yeah that's right!" Thinking he's in control before whisper in Eve's ear," I guess he do anything to protect a little damsel in distress."

"See, now you just made two big mistakes... One: i may be a damsel but I'm certainly not in distress, and two: thinking i need him to protect me." And with that Eve's eyes turned purple and the gun started to burn in the biker's hand causing him to drop it and release Eve. "You bitch!"

The bikers tries to hit Eve, but just before his hand gets to her face, it is stopped. Suddenly, one by one, each finger on his left hand bends all the way back, breaking. He cries in pain before he lunges at her only to be stopped by Lem and to once scream as fangs sunk into his neck. When Lem was finished the body drop to the ground.

"Thanks for the help." She said

"Your welcome."

"Come on, let's go get Bobo and Fiji." The two ran off in the direction where they saw Lowry and two other bikers took Bobo. When they entered the abandoned warehouse they noticed stairs leading down, once they reached the bottom there was a shipping container. Lem forcefully ripping the steel doors open.

"You okay?" Lem asked the two.

"Are you?" Fiji asks with concern for Lem in his current, with having been riddled with bullets.

Bobo spoke, "How about we talk once we're out of here? Come on." The four of them then ran to the truck.

"Sun's almost up," Lem warned Bobo.

"I'll be quick." He said.

Bobo grabs a grenade from a weaponry container, prepared to use it in order to blow up the entire stash. However, he is blindsided by Peter, though Bobo does manage to disarm him and subsequently kill Peter with his own knife. Bobo looks up to see Fiji watching over him. She tells him that they needed to go, and so they do. After struggling to get back to his feet, Bobo throws the grenade into what's left of the weapons and fortune, resulting in a huge explosion as he, Fiji, Lem, and Eve drive off.

Along their drive back to Midnight Eve's eyes suddenly turn purple and she gasped.

Lem saw Eve and became concerned, "Eve, are you alright?" He asked. But he didn't know what Eve seeing.

What she was her Brother getting possessed by violet, his dead ex-fiancée and Hightower's daughter. Violet states that her entire life, her father controlled her. He forced her to do what he wanted. He tried to marry her off like chattel. She never meant anything to him. Violet was always a means to an end. Hightower apologizes as this was never his intention. If he could do it again he would change it. Violent states that she killed the wrong person that night before turning her aggression towards her father, strangling him with all her strength. Manfred manages to regain control and expel Violet from his body.

"Violet's gone." Manfred sighs,"She said what she wanted you to know. Her spirit moved on. You okay?"

"No. You promised me peace." Hightower's voice grew with anger

"I know. I'm sorry."

"So am I."

Hightower raises his hands, shattering the glass window in front of him. Manfred covers his head in fear, Eve knowing that it was time to interfere she made Hightower's eye turn purple but only for a second to gain control of his actions she makes Hightower impale himself with the shards of glass, ending his life.

Manfred looked up and saw his sister before she disappeared. Back at the truck, Eve had taken out the doll and had placed little shard of glass in them when finished she turns to Lem saying that she is fine and he took her word for it as he sits back not knowing of what she had just done. They had just made it back to Midnight just as the sun rose. Everyone then left to go home, as Eve walked back home she thought about how one's past can catch up to them.

When she opened the door to her home she saw Manfred sitting on the couch, looking like he had a million thoughts in his head.

Eve spoke,"Hey."

"Hey." He said back.

Eve went into the kitchen and grabbed two beers before sitting down on the couch with her brother.

"So, what did you do today?" Manfred asked,trying to break the silence between them .

"I teamed up with Lem and Bobo to rescue Fiji from the Sons of Lucifer, which turned out successful and i managed to kill some racists, so pretty good day. What about you?"

"I think you already know." Manfred pulls out the coin, "I figured out that you must have placed this on me when you killed Hightower and saved me at the same time." He takes a sip of his beer before saying,"Thanks."

"Your welcome."

The two then continued to drink before they decide it was time to get some sleep. So Manfred went to the bedroom and slept while Eve stayed back on couch thinking about the future while she drifted off to sleep.

It was in the late afternoon that they got up and continued on with the day. Eve sat on the couch and read one of her books while Manfred was in the kitchen when there were knocks, Manfred opened the door and it was Creek.

"You made it out alive. Did he?" She said

Manfred shook his head. "Long story. I wasn't sure I'd see you again after—"

"Your dead ex-fiancé fiasco?"she asked.

"Look, if it's a deal breaker—" he started to say.

"It isn't," she interrupted and then stepped into his space, "I'm impressed. You did everything you could to make it right. You tried. I'm sorry about what happened with your grandma. That really sucks."

"Yeah. It did," he stated before they kissed, "Can you stay a while?"

"How about I stay the night?"

"What are you gonna tell your dad?" Manfred asked

Creak looked down at the floor as she answered, "I already told him the truth. That I'm an adult, and he can't tell me how to live, and you and I are a thing. I mean, if you're still planning on staying." She finished as she looked him in the eyes.

"Now I am," was the reply and he kissed her again, "So, I'm not running anymore. You're not hiding from your dad. This gonna get boring?"

"Let's find out."

They both chuckled and started to make out as they walked back into Manfred's room. Eve shook her head as she got up from the couch, she closed the door behind her after she left the house and made entered the Rv.

As she sat down, Xylda sat across from her granddaughter who she could tell had something going on in her head.

"What's eating ya, hon?"

"Nothing." Xylda gave her a look and she caved, "Fine. It's just, that with what's happened today has made me think about some things."

"What things?" She asked with a curious grin.

"The future. The past. Love." Eve replied

Xylda's eyes widen in realisation, "You're afraid that this love of yours will reject you when he finds out about your Mrs. Hyde side." Eve nodded. "Well, sweetie you just need to tell him and if he doesn't accept you then he ain't worth your time of day."

Eve smiled, "Thanks, you can give really great advice."

"Thank you. Now, why don't you go and tell that man of the cloth about how you feel."

"How long have you known?" She asked her.

"I may have got a glimpse of you kissing him that morning after the full moon." Xylda cheekily, "Well, what are you waiting for go tell'em."

"If you didn't give good advice, i would perform an exorcism on the Rv." Eve said before she got out of her seat and left the Rv.

After crossing the street Eve stared at the church and took a deep breath before entering. As she walked in she saw the rev reading at the pulpit, he looked up and took notice of her.

"Eve." He walked around the pulpit and stood in front of her. "What brings you here?"

"There's something i need to tell you." She paused. "This is something that has affected everything in my life. As you may know I'm not human, I'm a powerful and dangerous supernatural. My kind are treacherous and manipulative, and I've worked hard to never been like that. And the reason that I'm telling you this is because i care for you. And I'm just afraid that i will be rejected because of something that I can't really change about myself. So, I'm gonna show you what i am and if you don't like it then I'll leave and accept it."

She closed her eyes, took a breath, and then the right half of her face became decayed and her eye a milky white. She held her breath as she waited for him to do or say something, and as he walked closer her heart beated rapidly. Her breath hitched as he placed right hand on her decayed half.

"Your beautiful," he said quietly. He placed his other hand on her face to frame it as he gently pressed his lips against hers.

Eve wrapped her arms around him and placed her hands on his shoulder blades. Eve knew that she didn't need to be afraid of opening her heart, as they kissed time had stopped allowing them to enjoy this moment.


	6. Blinded by the light

Since the night they had kissed, Emilio and Eve have kept their relationship a secret. It is the night of the full moon, and Eve offered to keep watch even though Emilio protested it but she gave good reason for doing it which is making sure there won't be a repeat of what happened because of officer gomez, and he eventually gave in.

Halfway through the night, as she leaned against the church close to the cellar doors, she heard shouting coming from down the road. And seconds later several howls, Eve then looked at the direction at where the howls were coming from and she saw a group of teenagers go into Fiji's yard and start trashing it.

Eve sees Fiji intervening by using her magic to create wind gusts that stir up dust in their faces, which scares them off. She hears the teens calling her "Sabrina the middle-age bitch" and threatening to burn her at the stake. 

Their next stop was the pet cemetery, where they vandalize the church and headstones with graffiti. 

"Cherry-popping time, Aerin," one of the boys told the only girl in their group.

"You know, it's okay. You go ahead. This place kind of creeps me out," she replied.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you not disrespect the dead." Eve told the group as she remained in the shadows. 

"So what, it's not like they're gonna care they're dead." One of the boys said

"I warned you." Her eyes turned purple soon the tree, near the cemetery, branches moved and tried to wrap around the boy that was closest. The teens soon ran away in fear, the girl screamed as she stepped on a dead opossum and then jumped when the tiger in the cellar started banging against the doors. 

When the sun came, Eve unlocked and removed the chains, and sneaked back into her house for a quick shower, and to brush her teeth, and to change her clothes. Before going back to the church she grabbed a cup of coffee from the restaurant for Emilio. The cellar doors opened as she had reached the church. 

"Good morning." She greeted him as he exited the cellar. 

"Morning." He greeted her. The gap between them close as they side-hugged. 

"I got you coffee," she handed him the cup, "I thought you could use it, especially after last night."

"Thank you." 

Eve grunts and winces as she gets a short sharp pain in her head and ripples go across her face. 

"Are you alright?" Emilio asks with concern.

"I'm, I'm fine, it's just something that used to happen when i was younger back when I didn't have much control, it still happens occasionally when I'm in places of great spiritual energy".

The two then stared at the ground, more specifically the insects and dead possum that is on the ground. 

"It's the veil. The more it breaks, the more darkness and evil are here." Eve turned to Emilio with concern in her eyes, "The veil is affecting you're were-self, isn't?" 

"Perhaps, but for now i want you to go to the restaurant and get something to eat you've been up all night." 

"Not all night, i took some naps every few hours. And besides this isn't the first time I've stayed up all night." She looked back at the ground, "why don't i help you clean this up." 

"No i got this. You can go and get something to eat, I'll see you there once I'm done." 

"Fine. If it will make you feel better I'll go." She kissed him on the cheek," I'll see you later." And with that she walked over to home cookin

Once she had entered the restaurant Eve headed towards the Midnighter's room. And in there she saw Manfred, eating his breakfast and taking his pills, and took a seat across the table from him. 

"Morning." He greeted her.

"Morning." 

"Where were you this morning?" He asked. "Cause when i got up I didn't see you on the couch, and the i check the Rv and Trailer and you weren't there either." 

"I went for a walk around town. " she paused, "You know, Manny I really think that you should start to wean yourself off because it will only be a matter of time until your body builds a tolerance for it or you run out, and once you run out you'll get withdrawal symptoms." 

Manfred opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by the Rev joining them and sat down between them, at the end of the table and folded his hands.

"Good morning, Manfred, Eve." He greeted them. "How was your night?" 

Manfred hesitated for a moment before saying, "Good, and yours?" 

"Mine wasn't great either." The Rev replied knowing what Manfred said was a lie.

Manfred scoffed and spoke, "Yeah, full moon last night."

"My wereself…it's hungry."

"Every day, I see more and more spirits," Manfred said.

"Same." Eve said joining her brother with his problem.

"Feels like something weird is going on." Manfred said

They all sat in silence but the silence was soon interrupted. 

"Excuse me," a male voice said from the door.

They looked towards the door way and saw a teenage boy, but Eve knew that it was one of the boys from last night,

The teen went on to explain why he was here, "My friend was in here last night—uh, Aerin," he then pulled out his phone to show them a picture of himself and Aerin, "Her mom called and said that she didn't make it home, and, uh, have you seen her? We're pretty worried about her."

"I'm sorry, no," Manfred told him.

"Neither did I," the Rev said, "However, I did see my cemetery was vandalized. You weren't here with your friend, were you?"

"Uh, no, no I—I don't know anything about that," the boy denied.

The reverend, Eve, and Manfred shared a look, "Maybe my friend Manfred here could help. He's…intuitive."

"No, stop, stop right there. Don't use that witchy crap on me. It was a mistake asking you people." The teenager started to say as he moved toward the door.

"Well, your friend wouldn't have been missing if you had heed my warning and left." Eve said while staring at the boy with her eyes purple. The boy's eyes widen in fear as he realized who she was, and soon he was gone.

"You people?" Manfred asked.

"He's inconsequential,"the Rev told the two, "What is a problem is that there's another missing girl."

Once they gathered the Midnighters At the church, Fiji, Manfred, Creek, Olivia, Bobo, Rev, and Joe discuss their next course of action pertaining to the missing girl.

Hopefully she's just out partying," Creek said hopefully.

"Yeah, and not laying in a ditch somewhere," Olivia added.

"Still, we should try and find her," Bobo said.

"What if…something else is going on? Something supernatural?" Fiji said hesitantly

Creek turned to Manfred, "Manfred, you've been seeing an uptick in ghosts, right?"

"Seeing and hearing, everywhere," he confirmed, "Psychic energy's off the charts."

"And I've been finding dead animals and bugs on Witch Light Road," the Rev added as he looked at Joe.

"Shouldn't we focus on finding the girl?" Joe questioned, "I'm gonna head out to the ranches." He then quickly left .

"Creek, Eve and I'll take the back woods," Manfred offered and the three left behind Joe.

Bobo looked to Fiji with unease and was about to speak but it was cut when Olivia intervene, "Bobo, you're with me."

"Rev, you and I can look in town," Fiji suggested.

As the three travel farther and farther in the woods things started to look the same.

"Are these trees all beginning to look the same?" Manfred asked as he looked around.

"It might look like it, but I know these woods pretty well. Connor and I would explore for hours when we first moved to Midnight." Creek paused and turned to Manfred, "I think my dad is taking out his anger at me on Connor. I saw a bruise on Connor's arm." 

"Has he ever hit you?" He asked with concern.

"No. Even after Mom died, as messed up as he was, he never laid a finger on us." She explained. 

Manfred and Eve stop at the sight in front of them. 

"What is it?" She looks down and sees a dead body, "Oh, my God, is that her?" She asks in shock.

Manfred looks more closely at the body ,"Uh, no, no, she's been here a while."

"It's another girl?" She asked 

"Yeah." He confirmed. "I think I've met her."

"You did, in fact we both have." Eve paused." That's the girl from the vampire bus Tiffany." 

Creek calls Olivia and Bobo to alert them that they found another girl's body and where to meet them. The three are soon joined by Olivia and Bobo. Manfred crouches over Tiffany's dead body, while the others stood a few feet behind him.

"Tiffany If you're here, please make yourself known." He said addressing her spirit, "We met on the vampire bus. You were donating blood." 

"She was killed a while ago," Bobo observed.

"Yeah, a lot of things were killed here," Creek said with disgust at the number of animal carcasses.

"Tell me what happened. We need to stop whoever did this to you," Manfred continued.

"Oh, you poor thing, you were just dumped out here like garbage."

Olivia scoffed, "Yeah, she survived a vampire bus for this."

Manfred shook his head. "I'm not getting anything," he told them as he stood up, "Her spirit's not here. It moved on, which is a good thing, the natural order. Spirits that stay are unsettled, unhappy."

"And believe me you do not want an angry spirit, they'll cause nothing but trouble." Eve added.

"This is another Aubrey," Bobo told them.

"We don't know that," Olivia denied.

Bobo nodded, "Yeah, I do. Lowry didn't kill Aubrey. I know I didn't. Someone else dragged her body to the river, left her to die. Same person who did this."

"Should we call the authorities?" Creek questioned, "In case someone is looking for her—"

"No, Tiffany fell off the grid long before she got to Midnight," Olivia stated firmly.

Bobo spoke up, "We need to find who did this. Deal with it ourselves."

"Which means, what exactly?" Manfred asked him.

"We'll decide the punishment when we find out who's doing this," Olivia responded. "For now, let's just go look for the other girl."

Bobo Spoke next, "Fingers crossed we find her before the cops start digging." He and Olivia left. 

Soon after Manfred, Creek, and Eve left to head over to Creek's house so she can check on Conner. Along the way Eve decided to let Emilio know what they had found. Her eyes turned purple and she was suddenly there at the church, she looked around the corner and saw two deputies from davy talking to him. 

"You sure you didn't see her?" The deputy asked him.

"No, but then again, I was down for the night with my girlfriend - before sunset." Emilio replied 

"Well, that's early" the deputy commented 

"Midnight's a sleepy town. I don't know why folks have to be so disrespectful." He gestured to the graffiti on the tombstone. 

"It wasn't that long ago Aubrey Lowry went missing. Found her dead by the river."

"Killed by her husband, as far as I understood." 

"Still an open case until we find him. This girl, her mom's a judge in Davy, and she's scared, so we told her we'd search around. But, in 24 hours, there's gonna be a full investigation." The two deputies left and returned to their vehicle and headed back to davy, as they left joe arrived.

"They here about the girl?" He asks, "No sign of her out by the ranches."

"Fiji thinks she's going mad because she hears demons. Manfred is self-medicating because he sees spirits everywhere. Eve is beginning to lose control." He said the last sentence with more concern, "I promised to keep your secret, but the others? They deserve to know they're not going crazy." 

"Nothing I say is gonna stop what's coming. Eventually, they'll know everything."

"When? When demons start crawling out of the veil?" 

"I am protecting my family."

"At the expense of everyone else? I know you sent Chuy away. Why? Because the veil is so dangerous for him here?" Emilio questioned 

"This is an impossible choice. I wanna help, but if it gets out that there's a fallen angel here, they will come for me, and, believe me, you do not want that in Midnight." Joe argued. "But what I can do is keep looking for the girl. That's what I can do to help." He then left to go search for the girl. 

Eve left the corner she hid behind and walked up to Emilio, "We didn't find the girl but we did find Tiffany, the girl from the vampire bus, dead." 

"Thank you for telling me." He paused."How long were you here?" 

"I got here when the deputy asked if you were sure if you didn't see the missing girl." She chuckled, "So, you told the deputies that you were with your girlfriend." She wrapped her arms around his neck and he wrapped his around her waist.

"Well, it is the truth." He paused,"I'm curious as to why you want to keep our relationship a secret?" 

"Didn't you ever hear the curiosity killed the cat." She joked

"But satisfaction brought it back." 

She chuckled." True. It's just that i only thinks it's fair to have a secret relationship since my brother had one with Creek." She paused." Speaking of my brother and Creek, we're almost at her house. See you later." They kissed goodbye, and Eve returned just as her, Manfred, and Creek arrived at the house. 

"So you just wanna check on Connor?" Manfred asked as they quickly went inside.

"I just wanna let him know what's going on,"Creek replied as she opened the door and called out, "Connor, you here?" She went into the back rooms and Manfred closed the door after Eve entered.

"Wouldn't he have called you if something was wrong." Eve stated

"Yeah, or he'd keep quiet and protect my dad," she countered. "It's the Lovell way. I'm gonna check out back."

As Manfred and Eve proceed further into the house, they begin to hear muffled voices and they feel another headache coming on, so Manfred pops a couple more pills while with Eve ripples go across her face and she does her best to ignore the voices.

"Oh, great. You," Mr. Lovell said as he came into the room. "What are you doing here?"

"Mr. Lovell, I'm here with Creek." Manfred explained.

"Where is she?" he asked.

Manfred and Eve sniffed, they catch the scent of alcohol on Mr. Lovell's breath and Eve knew that Manfred was going to comment on it but she was too late to stop him.

"Starting early, huh?"

Mr. Lovell punched Manfred in the face and loomed over him as he laid on the floor from the punch made him fell, "You come in my house, and I'm supposed to explain myself to you?"

Eve then punched Mr. Lovell in the face making him clasp his nose. Creek them came back into the room seeing Manfred on the floor and her father recovering from a punch to the face.

"Are you kidding me? You're hitting him now?" Creek said to her father before turning her attention to Manfred and asked, "You okay?"

"I'm fine, yeah."

"We're looking for Connor," she told her father.

"Well, he's not here," He replied.

Creek shaked her head before she said, "Just because I'm not here all the time doesn't mean I'm not watching out for him."

"Get him and his sister out of my house."

Creek gave her father a disgusted look before they left. They made their way down the street.

"There, I texted Connor. Warned him Dad's hammered," Creek announced as they got closer to the church.

"What are you thinking?" Manfred asked.

"I'm thinking I should've kept lying. I thought he could handle me having a life, but, boy, was I wrong."

"Any luck?" the Rev asked as he approached them.

"No, we searched the river, fields by the Gas & Go. No luck." Manfred informed him.

"Fiji and I searched the town," He told them.

"Well, should we check the road to Davy?" Creek asked.

"Hey, I'm seeing a lot of ghosts these days, so I'm not sure, but…Is someone out there?" Manfred said looking past the church yard and to the field. 

The others turned their attention and saw the person, Creek squinted as she looked out and recognized who was walking towards the town, "Connor!"

When they reached him they saw that he was dirty and bleeding.

"Oh my god," Creek exclaimed before asking, "what happened?"

Connor quickly fell unconscious and they caught him. They carried him over to Manfred and Eve's. Creek texted Fiji, Bobo, and Olivia what happened and where to meet them. They arrived not long after Emilio had left. They watched from outside the bathroom as Fiji tened to Connor’s wounds, while Manfred went to the kitchen to get something and Fiji came to talk to them.

"He's disoriented, might be a concussion," She informed them.

"Can I get you anything else?" Creek asked her brother but he shook his head.

Manfred came back with a water bottle and handed it to Conner. "Connor…Um, you remember anything about the person who did this?"

"I—I went looking for the missing girl, and someone hit me from behind,"He told them.

Manfred turned to Bobo, Fiji, and Eve and said, "Same thing that happened to Aubrey."

"Are you sure it was human?" Fiji asked out of the blue.

"What are you talking about?" Creek questioned.

Bobo spoke, "What else would it be?"

Fiji hesitated before answering, "A demon."

There was suddenly a loud knock at the door that startled all of them them.

"Oh!" Bobo exclaimed, he held up is hands and explained, "I called Lem." Then he left to answer the door.

Since Lem was unable to enter the house, everyone decided to go to the restaurant and went the Midnighters Room. Eve texted Emilio, as she walked to the restaurant, saying were they are. 

They regroup in the Midnighter's room, where Fiji further elaborates on her earlier statement about demons.

"I'm telling you, there's a demon," Fiji said, "I've been hearing it in my house. Manfred and Eve saw it too, when I cleansed their place."

Manfred spoke, "We banished it back to the other side of the veil."

"Shouldn't we be getting back to the girl?" Joe said trying to redirect the conversation.

"We thought we banished it, but what if that thing is what is doing this?"

"Demons are malevolent beings not of this Earth. The attack on Connor was downright sloppy." Lem stated.

"I agree with Lem. If it was a Demon then we wouldn't have found Connor alive, and as for the victims i don't think they were killed by a Demon either if they were they would have been missing a limb, organ, or even have a symbol on them. So whoever is doing this is human." Eve said.

"Which means it's very solvable," Olivia explained before briefly opening her jacket showing the gun holstered under her arm.

"Wait, wait, there has to be something making me see ghosts everywhere and Fiji see demons and-," Manfred said but he was interrupted by the door sliding open.

The reverend stood in the doorway, out of his Reverend attire, wearing a black button up shirt, dark jeans, and a dark-blue jean jacket with a fuzzy white collar.

"Rev?" Joe spoke first. 

"Emilio," He corrected with his eyes on the ground he then looked up, "I'm not here as a man of God. I'm a Midnighter and a friend."

"I'm doing something wrong for reasons I believe to be right and I hope you will forgive me, but my conscience will not allow me to remain silent anymore," he went on to explain.

Lem stood and asked Emilio, "What's going on, Emilio?"

He shifted on his feet, hesitant, "You need to know that the veil between hell and Midnight is fraying. Evil energy is seeping out of the veil, affecting all of us and bringing out the darkness in us, as well as drawing evil to Midnight."

"Why are we just hearing about this now?" Fiji asked With an accusing tone, "I came to you."

"I was protecting my source," he replied.

"At my expense?" she asked with anger, "There's a demon in my house, clawing me."

"Wait, clawing you?" Bobo asked with his voice full of concern. Fiji then shot him a look and he looked away, "Are you okay?"

Fiji then turned to Emilio, "Am I?"

He shook his head and answered, "I don't know."

"So there is a portal to hell opening in Midnight, a girl missing and cops about to swarm if we don't find her." Manfred summed up.

With that being said, they all split up to find the girl. Manfred, Eve, and Lemuel go to the site of Connor's attack, hoping Manfred could get a read on something.

"Connor was attacked over there.I figured maybe I'd get a read on something." He paused, "What do you think about what the Rev said?"

"I'm curious who gave him the information," Lem answered. "I've been wondering why I've been so hungry lately."

"I'm not getting any readings."

Lem smelled the air and said, "I am," he inhales deeply and told them, "I smell blood." He pat Manfred on the arm and started to walk in the direction they had been going, Eve and Manfred followed.

They went around a large pile of timber follow and Manfred' fell on Mr. Lovell picking the missing girl up from the ground. He lays her back down, and attempts to run off in the opposite direction. 

Lem uses his speed and catches Mr. Lovell, "Your not going anywhere." He growled. He then leeches him to the point of unconsciousness. Manfred and Eve run over to the girl, Eve check to see of she has a pulse and is still breathing. 

Eve looks up at Lem. "She's alive."

Lem takes the girl to Fiji's and later came back for Mr. Lovell and took him to the pawn shop, as they walked into town Eve headed over to the pawn shop while Manfred returns to his home to inform Creek of the devastating news. 

After tying Shawn up in the center of the pawn shop, the Midnighters surround him and begin their interrogation.

Lem spoke as he stepped around him, "I always wondered what drove a man to move himself, his two children, somewhere so small and isolated. Most people wouldn't bring their families somewhere so remote…But I imagine you loved it," he stopped in front of Mr. Lovell.

"We need to know for sure it's him," Bobo tried to reason.

"I found him with her," Lem said surely.

There was a moment of silence that took over the room.

Lem continued and told Mr. Lovell, "You're gonna tell me how many. How many girls have you killed?"

He said nothing, he only looking away from Lem.

"I will drain you if you don't tell me how many people you've killed," Lem said before he flashed his fangs with a snarl.

Olivia then grabbed Mr. Lovell by the hair and held a knife to his throat.

"Stop," Manfred said as he came into the shop and stopped between Bobo and Eve, "We're not torturing Creek's father."

"Why not?" Olivia questioned him. "He did worse to those victims, to his own son."

"And he brought law enforcement here. The man has endangered us all," Lem added.

"Doesn't mean we can act as judge, jury, and executioner," Emilio countered.

"Oh, sure, we can," Olivia said with a humorless chuckle. "We're gonna do this the Midnighters' way," she tugged on Mr. Lovell's hair and he winced, "swift and simple."

"There's nothing simple about this," Emilio told her, then he pointed at Mr. Lovell, "This man should be locked away."

"Or we do to him what we did to the succubus, and Zach and the other vampires," Lem said, "End him."

"Maybe it's the veil," Manfred said trying t reason before turning to Emilio, "You said the veil is making people give in to the darkness. Maybe that's why he's—"

"The veil can't make someone evil," He interrupted, "If he gave in to the darkness, it was already there inside him."

Manfred the stepped closer to Creek's father, "Creek is devastated. She needs to know why. Is that why you didn't want me around her? 'Cause you know I see the dead and they tell me things?"

There was no reply.

Eve's eyes widen in realization before turning to Manfred," He's hiding something, Manny."

Manfred backed away from the room with Eve. 

"Where are you headed?" Lem asked when he noticed they started to leave.

Manfred answered over his shoulder as he kept walking with Eve, "If he won't talk, maybe his victims will."

They exited the pawn shop and walked down the road to the Lovell house.

Manfred kicks in the Lovell's front door, they proceed about the house. His headache grew and Ripples appeared on Eve's face as they hear voices and then headed towards Connor's room. 

Once they entered the room, the voices got louder making Manfred groan in pain as his headache continued to get worse, and making Eve wince in pain and the ripples becoming more frequent. When Manfred opened the vent cover it got worse but then suddenly it stop as he pulled a box out.

They looked inside and in it was a skeleton mask that Manfred had saw on Aubrey's killer. When he reached for it he was swarmed by visions. It was then that they realizes that Mr. Lovell wasn't the killer, he was merely protecting the real killer, Connor.

The two headed over to Fiji's to show the girl a picture of Conner to backup what Manfred saw.

"Is it him?" He asked the girl, showing her a picture of Conner and Creek, "Is he the one who hurt you?"

The girl looked at the photo and nodded. "I tried to run away. But he found me."

"You're safe now. I promise," Fiji told her.

"He had a metal pipe," the girl continued, "He hit me with it, and I passed out."

Bobo Stood next to the box too, listening to the girl as he looked at the things inside and what he found made his blood boil.

"But when he came back, I was ready for him, and I had a rock. And I hit him with it, hard, and then I just tried to get as far away from him as I could," she finished.

Manfred and Eve went over to Bobo.

"I gave this to Aubrey," he said as he showed them Aubrey's engagement ring.

"I need to tell Creek," Manfred quietly informed Bobo and Eve.

"I'll go with you," Bobo said.

Eve then followed close behind the two.

"Be hard not to strangle him with my bare hands," Bobo said as he marched to the door of Eve and Manfred' home.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Manfred said as he grabbed Bobo's arm and making him stop on the porch, "Creek's there. She's been through enough. Let's not make this harder on her than it has to be."

"You need to calm down, Bobo." Eve added.

"I'll restrain myself in front of Creek," he replied.

Bobo threw the door open as he stepped inside but the house empty.

Manfred check the bedroom and called out, "Creek?" Twice but there was no answer, "they're gone."

Once they returned to the pawn shop, Manfred tried to get ahold of Creek, "Creek, it's me. Call me back. I need to know where you are. Call me."

After Hanging up, Manfred went to Creek's father, "I need to know. Where would Connor go? Where would he take her?"

"I don't know. I really don't," He answered, "Creek never understood why we couldn't have pets, but it wasn't fair to them. It made me sick, but Connor said that it was…fun. We took him to doctors. They wanted to put him away. I lost my wife. I couldn't lose him too."

"You put our home in danger," Lem stated.

"I never meant for that to happen. I'm here because it's isolated. You all, you can protect yourselves from him."

Bobo fisted his hands and said, "How about the ones who couldn't, hmm? Like Aubrey, Tiffany?" Manfred held him back.

"I tried to keep an eye on him. I found out about Aubrey too late. When I heard about the girl gone missing, I—I went out looking for her. I wanted to find her."

"He's got Creek," Manfred told him.

"He wouldn't hurt her," He denied.

"You sure about that," Olivia quietly asked as she looked him in the eye.

Eve, deciding she finally had enough, walked closer to Mr. Lovell.

"You know, my Grandfather taught me a lot of things when i was with him. Such as pickpocketing, picking locks, and torture." Mr. Lovell's eyes where then filled with fear," I even created a few techniques but the one I’m really proud of is the 'hear no evil see no evil speak no evil', you see i start with speak no evil," she place her hand on his mouth," then see no evil," she walked behind him and place her hands on his eyes, she walked back in front of him," and then finally hear no evil," she place her hands in his ears. "Essentially the flesh molds together allowing you to have all the time you need to think." 

Manfred tried calling Creek again and there was brief answer before the call suddenly ended. Everyone turns their heads to Mr. Lovell.

"I don't know what happened. He must have taken the phone from her." Manfred said

"Connor wouldn't hurt—" Lovell said but was interrupted by Olivia.

"Shut up!" She yelled, and placed her blade on his throat, "You lied to us for years. I don't believe a word out of your mouth." 

"He's a killer. That's who he is." Lem stated

"It's his nature." Emilio added

"She'll figure it out." Manfred said with realization. "What happens then, when he feels cornered?" The Midnighters begin to worry what would follow should this happen. Manfred suddenly exits the pawn shop and the Midnighters follow him

Lem suddenly appears in front of Manfred and asked"Manfred, where are you going?" 

"Creek's in danger. I'm not waiting." He answered 

"So you're just gonna get in your RV and start driving!" Olivia shouted as she came after him.

Bobo, Emilio, Fiji, Eve were right behind Olivia but joe stopped in the street.

"Yeah, until I find her," Manfred told Olivia.

"Okay, you go south. I'll go north," Bobo suggested.

"What, they could be anywhere," Fiji protested.

"That's a lot of ground to cover," Emilio added.

"Am I supposed to hope that Connor will kill a stranger but not his sister?Or just wait…just until we find her body somewhere?"

"No," Joe told him before taking off his shirt.

"My goddess…Joe, what are you doing?" Fiji asked, confusion written all over her face.

There was the sound of popping joints as wings sprouting from the Joe's back. Everyone stepped closer to Joe. 

"I can cover more ground from above," Joe said as he spread his wings and then started running before he took off in search of Creek and Connor.

Manfred spoke first. "Was I the only one not in the loop?"

"Nope," Olivia replied.

"Did not suspect that." Fiji said

"Well, that explains a few things." Lem added.

"So he's an…" Bobo started to ask.

"Angel," Emilio finish, "Joe is an angel."

Eve walks towards Lem, "Mind giving me a lift, Lem."

"Not at all." Lem picks Eve up and follows Joe's lead as they search for Creek.

Lem and Eve arrive, Lem putting Eve down looks to Joe, who gives Him the go-ahead to finish off Connor. Lem effortlessly catches up to Connor in the field, and snaps his neck. Saddened by the difficult choice that he had to make, Lem did it anyway, as it was a sufficient way to deal with the threat. Lem, Joe, Eve, and Creek return to Midnight, where Manfred, Bobo, Fiji, Emilio, and Olivia await their return. Lem looks to the Midnighters, shaking his head, signaling that Connor didn't make it. Olivia embraces Lemuel, as Manfred does Creek.

Eve exited the truck and joined everyone. Emilio approached Eve And pulled her into a kiss, his arms wrapped around her waist and hers wrapped arms around his neck. They heard the others' words of surprise but that didn't matter to them.

When the kiss broke, Eve looked at Emilio and softly spoke, "You do know this mean that are relationship is no longer a secret." 

"Let them know," he replied with smile.

She lightly chuckled. "I just know that Manny is going to bother about keeping this a secret but you know what it's worth it." They kissed again.

The next morning, the girl was picked up by her mother and returned to Davy. As Emilio and Eve walk to the church they see Creek exiting in tears, the Midnighters gather just outside the chapel, Fiji stands with Connors skeleton mask in hand. She throws it into the fire. Fiji's performing a ceremony, in which they destroy Connor's mementos, as well as honor the spirits that were torn from their world. Let them cleanse the pain, and the suffering they experienced. From this hate, let love be found. From this violence, let peace emerge. Farewell, and blessed be. Once the ceremony was finished the group broke off.

Later Emilio and Eve enter the tattoo shop, heading upstairs, where he notices the artistic depiction of the frayed veil. Eve stayed by the doorway while Emilio went to stand beside the workbench in the middle of the room before he said, "Well...You must be angry with me."

Joe shook his head before replying , "No, I'm not. If you hadn't done what you did, I might not have gone after Creek."

"I think you would have," Emilio with conviction.

"Maybe..." Joe answered before taking a deep breath, "But I used my light to save her, which means they will be coming for me."

Emilio nodded in understanding.

Joe put down the brush he was holding. "I should call Chuy and tell him."

"Thank you, Joe," Emilio told him and held Eve's hand "If you need anything, we're here."

"Don't be afraid to ask for help, joe. We're Midnighters and we help each other." Eve said to Joe before her and Emilio left.


	7. Angel heart

The light of the morning sun seeps through the curtains and fall across Eve and Emilio, sleeping together on his bed. It had been a few days since Connor's and Eve had been staying at Emilio's since then. Eve felt a light kiss on her forehead her eyes fluttered open and saw Emilio smiling at her, and in return she kissed him. 

When the kiss broke she said, "Morning." They kissed again.

The kiss broke as he said, "Morning." 

Eve spoke in between kisses,"As much... as i... would love.... to continue this….we…. should probably get dressed." 

The two then broke the kiss and got out of bed and went to the bathroom for a shower and to brush their teeth, and then got dressed and headed for the restaurant for breakfast. When they arrived at the restaurant and to the Midnighter's room, they saw Fiji with some materials out in front of her. 

After a while, Creek came into the restaurant and started talking to Madonna. When the conversation was finished Madonna approached them in the Midnighters room.

"She's back so soon?" Emilio questioned her.

Madonna shook her head and answered, "She asked to come in. But I agree with you. It doesn't feel right."

"Sometimes it's good getting out of the house." Fiji spoke up and the others turned to her, "Being out in the world could be a good distraction."

"This isn't out in the world. This is inventory," Madonna stated before leaving with some dirty dishes.

"You weren't just talking about Creek, were you?" Emilio questioned Fiji, as he sat beside her.

"The Inquiring Mind's not all that pleasant to be in right now, especially for me." She replied.

"You still hear it? The demon?" He asked

"Sometimes it calls my name." She paused." Sometimes it laughs. When I don't hear it, I'm just waiting.I liked it better when I thought I was going crazy." She looks down. 

Eve placed her hand on Fiji's shoulder, she looked up to her, "I know things are pretty bad right now but it will get better, I promise Fiji."

She smiled, "Thank you, Eve." They hugged. 

Eve went back to her seat next to Emilio and He took her hand in his and said to her, "I'm gonna head over to the church for a while but I'll be back soon, goodbye." He got up from his seat leans down and kisses her on the cheek.

"Goodbye." Eve said back before he left. 

Not long after Manfred entered the Midnighters room with his laptop.

"Hey." Fiji greeted him. 

"Hey, Manny." Eve greeted him.

"Hey." He said back, he took a seat across from Eve. 

Fiji got up from her seat and walked towards Manfred,"So, um, how's she been? Really." she questioned about Creek. 

“She seems okay. She's quiet.” He answered. 

“Everything's quiet. Ever since what happened with Connor, the town's different. Folks are keeping to themselves.” Fiji said 

Manfred looked up at Fiji and asked, “Have you seen Joe since, uh… ” 

“Since he flew?” She finished,”No.Could be he's lying low.” she replied 

“Emilio said that Joe's scared that they'll come after him.” Eve explained 

“Who's "they"?” Manfred questioned. 

“Didn’t say.” Was the reply. 

The three continued to talk for sometime until Eve suddenly clutched her head in pain, Manfred gets up from his seat and walks to her and grabs her shoulder, “Eve, are you okay?” 

She lightly shakes her head and says,”Yeah, Yeah, i'm fine just felt like my head hit something pretty hard but it’s gone now.” she stands up from her seat, “I’m gonna head home.” 

“I’ll come with.” Manfred said as he walked beside her after getting his laptop.

They walk out of Home Cookin' to see a woman exiting the church, and proceeding towards the tattoo shop. The woman stops in front of the shop and eyes it. Manfred takes out his phone and calls Joe. 

“Hello?” Joe answers 

“This may be nothing, but there's someone eyeing your shop.” Manfred told him. 

The two hear joe saying the woman's name, Bowie, and how she was ancient and more powerful than him. Manfred and Eve walked back to their house. Once they were inside, Manfred called joe as him and Eve looked through the curtains at Bowie. 

"She's heading to the Gas & Go," Manfred told Joe. 

"Get over to Olivia's as soon as you can, and whatever you do, avoid Bowie."

"What if I don't? Eternal damnation?" Manfred questioned.

"Angels can read minds, so she'd use what I just told you to find and kill Chuy and me." He explained 

Manfred nodded, "Well, in that case, I'll try to avoid her. Should we tell Creek? Madonna?" He asked. 

"No. Angels guard humans. She won't harm them. The less they know, the better."

"And what about supernaturals?" Manfred asked.

"Oh, she hates supernaturals."

“Great.” Eve said under her breath. 

“We'll be there when we can," Manfred stated. 

As Manfred and Eve leave towards Olivia's apartment, they are cut off by Bowie, so, they then turn back and went into the trailer. 

“Grandma? Where the hell are you?” Manfred calls out. 

“What?” she asks as she appeared behind them. 

“Grandma, I need your help. And I truly hate that I'm about to ask this.” He told her. 

Xlyda gave her grandson a puzzled look and he then quickly explained before she took possession of him. Eve tossed him a pair of sunglasses just as they heard someone, knowing it was Bowie, knock on the door. Eve went to the back of the RV while Manfred/ Xlyda answered the door. 

"Why'd you hide?" She asked him. 

"I didn't. I was going for a walk, decided against it."

"Joseph Strong. You know him?"

"Not well. Seems nice. But I just moved here," He replied.

She went inside as she spoke, "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"Sure. Come on in." Manfred said as he closed the door.

Once Bowie entered the RV Eve’s eye turned purple, and as she looked around Eve went unnoticed. 

Bowie picked up Creek's locket off the table and asked, "What, are you a fortune teller?"

"I prefer medium. Psychic. Even the Great Bernardo," he replied with a scoff. "And you are?"

"Looking for Joseph Strong," she told him as she looked around, "And I'm getting impatient." she then turned around and placed her hand on Manfred’s forehead and it glowed. 

"Ugh!" She exclaimed as she pulled away, "Ugh, what's wrong with you?"

"I don't know what you mean." Manfred said as he stood back straight up. 

"Your head."

Manfred begined to talk, "I take pills. Sometimes, actually, no, a lot of times, I hear voices, see things, some of which turns out aren't really there. I can't always tell what's real and what's not. Now is one of those times."

With one hand, Bowie grabs Manfred by the throat, lifts him up, and bangs his head against the ceiling,” It’s real.” she took one last look at the RV and said, "Oh, I hate this town," before she left.

Manfred expels Xylda from his body, which was a fairly uncomfortable experience, and there was an awkward silence as Manfred took off his glasses and Eve joined them in the front of the Rv. 

“Well, at least it worked.” Xylda commented 

“I'm gonna go, and I'm gonna try to forget that ever happened.” Manfred said in an uncomfortable voice. 

Manfred and Eve left the Rv and headed towards Olivia's apartment. Manfred knocked on the door and then Olivia quickly opened it. 

"Sorry I'm late," He said as they entered. The room was filled with FIji, Bobo, Lem, Chuy, and Joe. He informed him, "She came to my RV."

"She didn't get in your head?" he questioned.

"She did, but my grandma was already in there." Manfred told him. 

Everyone gave him confused looks, "She couldn't read much. It was too crowded, too confusing." He explained. 

"As is this," Fiji said.

"The Rev still isn't picking up, and I'm done waiting," Lem said. 

Joe sighed and responded, "Chuy and I need your help. There's an angel named Bowie in Midnight, and she's hunting me."

"An angel? We're scared of an angel?" Olivia questioned with a sarcastic smile an in disbelief. 

"Well, angels not only protect humans, they also kill demons," Joe said, "Bowie only liked the killing part of the job."

Bobo questioned, "You know her?"

"Yeah, she's a mentor and a friend. I walked away from that life without a word and I'm sure she's still angry and hurt and..wants me dead."

"So, she's mad because you left?" Manfred wondered.

"Leaving the fold, being fallen," Joe began to say as he moved closer to Chuy, "she might've forgiven that. But it's who I fell in love with she can't forgive."

"Oh. A man?" Fiji questioned him.

Joe and Chuy let out a few humorless chuckles before he went on, "No, not a man. Um…" Joe hesitated before looking at Chuy who nodded, signaly it was okay, "A demon."  
Joe then went on to explain how he and chuy met, "The first time I saw him was in this marketplace," Joe began, looking at his husband as he spoke, "haggling with some pretty sketchy guys."

"Silk Road traders," Chuy elaborated, "I wanted this porcelain. They asked for more than I had, so I left."

"And I followed. Saw the traders beating the crap out of him," he said as he glanced at the others. "So, I showed a little wing and scared them off. I went to help Chuy up and…saw that he was covered in black blood."

"Demon blood," Lem clarified.

Joe continued, "They not only beat him—they also stole his sandals. I asked him why didn't he just tear them apart, and he said maybe they needed the sandals more than he did. And that changed everything. Bowie told us we were superior, that demons were evil, and angels killing demons was doing a service, Chuy disproved all of it."

"I still can't get over it," Bobo spoke up, "You're a demon?"

Chuy sighed and gave a half shrug and told them, "Half-demon, My mom was human," he ended with small smile at the mention of his mother.

"Parents were another forbidden love?" Fiji asked.

"It wasn't love," Chuy stated then both he and Joe looked to the ground for a moment. "My mom and I were close. She taught me to control my demonic side. She said that our connection would keep me strong. Now I have this connection to keep me strong.” 

"Yeah, but you should've told us," Fiji said with little anger of betrayal.

Olivia glanced over her shoulder to Fiji. "They're telling us now," she stated while looking at Joe and Chuy.

"Yeah, now there's an angry angel in Midnight," was Lem's caustic reply, "They're immortal. Fiji's right. This shouldn't be the first time we're hearing about this."

"Look, Joe saved Creek. I'm willing to return the favor. So, angels—how do we deal with them?" Manfred spoke up defending Joe. 

"Well, they're tough," Joe stated, "Angels can read you mind, use your secrets against you."

"Great. And, uh, immortal," Manfred said.

"No. Almost immortal. Humans can't kill an angel, and I'm not tough enough to take on an angel like Bowie." Joe corrected 

"But demons can, right?" Fiji asked reading between the lines.

Chuy took a deep breath and Joe became even more worried and quickly went to Chuy’s defense.. "Oh, that—that is not an option. Last time he changed, it took three years to get him back. If Chuy turns, we're all in danger."

"I can't," Chuy told them, "I'm sorry."

"Okay, if we can't kill her maybe we can send her somewhere else, where there are demons who can take care of her," Manfred began. He turned to Fiji and walked to her side. "The exorcism at my house—the mirror acted as a portal."

"And we saw over to the other side of the veil," she finished.

"What if we created a portal and trapped her on the other side of the veil?"

"Are you suggesting we send an angel to hell?" Bobo asked skeptically.

Manfred turned to Joe and asked, "Will that work?"

"I think it just might," He said with optimism. 

"Then we should get started," Fiji spoke up.

The group headed down to the pawn shop to help Fiji prepare the portal, while Manfred and Eve went back to the trailer and RV to get somethings. They returned to the pawn shop with a small arsenal, a duffle filled with ancient relics and weapons that can take down supernaturals. Eve placed the bag on the counter and Manfred took out a severed and rotten finger. 

Joe walked up to them and asked, "Is that a, uh…” 

"Finger. Yeah," Manfred said, "Belonged to an ancient relative of mine, Uncle Roland. Legend is he pushed a demon back to hell with it. Soon as he touched the demon, his finger fell off."

"You certainly have a colorful past," Joe commented. 

"I used to think they were just stories my grandma made up," He scoffed , "The Great Bernardo Clan and the evil they battled."

"You ever think it's not a coincidence you're here in Midnight right as the veil frays?" Joe spoke hesitantly. 

"It's a coincidence or really bad luck."

"I think it's something else," Joe said .

“What do you mean joe?” Eve asked. 

"There's a prophecy," he explained to them. "It says, When the veil starts to tear, two heroes will rise. They will lead an army to fight the evil that emerges and seal the veil forever."

"Wow, we should call them," Manfred tells him.

"A man with the gift of vision, who can bridge the worlds between the living and the dead, and a woman with the blood of a survivor, whose powers have no rival, " Joe finished and looks at them meanifully. 

"Why are you looking at us?" Manfred asked. 

Joe only gave a small facial shrug and nodded at towards Manfred and Eve. .

Manfred scoffed, "You're joking."

"All the signs point to both of you, meaning now you two are leading the move against Bowie." Joe said. 

"It's, It's a pretty big leap from one plan to stopping the apocalypse," Manfred said in disbelief. He then begin pacing from left to right. 

"Well, I believe it's you." Joe spoke up. 

Manfred stopped and faced Joe. "Then you're insane."

Manfred’s phone started ringing, after what he had said, and he quickly answered it, "Creek, you okay?"

Suddenly his whole demeanor change, he put his phone down and put it on speaker. 

"She's sad," Bowie said over the phone "Oh, yeah, just a tad depressed. Where's Joseph?"

"I don't know," Manfred lied. 

"You have thirty minutes to find out, and then I'm gonna start killing people."

"I-I thought angels didn't hurt humans," He stated with his eyes on Joe. 

"Yeah, not normally, but today has been a very frustrating day," She said before they heard a different voice, Creek’s. 

"I love you," She stated in a strained voice. 

Manfred looked down at the phone and said, "Creek, you're gonna be all right."

"It's gonna be her body I toss out first," Bowie stated, they heard her laugh before she shouted, "Bring Joseph!"

The line then went dead, Manfred looked at Joe and Eve. 

"What do you want me to do?" Joe asked. 

"I want you to surrender," Manfred spoke. 

The three gathered the rest of the Midnighters and Manfred went on to explain his plan about to get Bowie through the mirror. 

“Eve, i want you to distract Bowie while we get everything set up and once it’s done we’re gonna lure her out with Joe. And once she’s out we’ll ambush and throw her through the portal.” He looked around the room and asked, “Everyone okay with the plan?” 

They all either nodded or voice that they agreed with Manfred’s plan. 

“Alright, Eve you know what to do.” He said. Eve nodded to him and pulled out from the duffle bag a female porcelain doll, she left the pawn shop and headed towards Home Cookin’, she stopped at the building and her eyes turned purple. 

Inside Home Cookin', Madonna’s eyes turned purple for a moment, meaning Eve was incontrol of her, she looked at Bowie wrapping her hands around his head and saying, “Hey, Creek, you want to hear what it sounded like when your brother's neck snapped?” making her blood boil.

She stood up, “Let him go, now! Bitch!” she said with anger. 

Bowie chuckled and let go of Emilio and slowly made her was to Madonna/ Eve as she said, “Madonna, it is Madonna, right? Good. listen Madonna i don’t think your really in the position of telling me what to do so i sit back down!” 

Eve smiled,”Now you see i would do that if i were Madonna but she has temporarily left the building, so you're stuck with me for now.” 

“What are you?” She asked. 

Eve grinned and said,” I’ll give you some hints: you angels ignored my kinds prayers when we needed you the most, you watched us burn for crimes we didn’t commit, you watched us suffer, you deemed my kind the unholy offspring of witches and demons.” her eyes quickly turned purple and the back to normal. 

Bowie’s eyes widen in realisation, “I saw you in the fortune teller’s and the padre’s mind. To be honest, i was hoping for your kind to be extinct. So, what are you going to do? Stop me from killing Joe, but you will already be dead.” she stepped closer to Eve as she threatened her. 

Eve stood her ground and spoke confidently, “You can’t because if you do you won’t be killing me you’ll be killing Madonna, and i’m pretty sure that it’s angel 101 that angels can’t kill humans and that also applies to angels who have fal--” she stopped mid-sentence with realisation, “You’re fallen, aren’t you?”

"Yeah," Bowie answered, "I had some anger issues."

They then heard Joe from outside shouting, "You want me? Come and get me!" 

Bowie added, "And there's why." Bowie wrapped her arm around Creek’s neck and dragged her outside with her. 

Eve quickly went to Emilio’s side,”Emilio, are you okay?” she asked with concern. 

“I’m fine.” he said with a strained voice. Eve gave a sigh of relief knowing that he was alive but knew that he was in pain, she reached into the pocket of the apren and pulled out a pen and notepad and started writing,”What are you doing?” 

“I’m writing to Madonna, telling her to take care of you when i give her back control while i’m out there.” she answered. Emilio tried to protest it Eve kissed him when it broke she said,”I’ll be fine, i promise.” Eve returned back to her body and saw Bowie breaking the mirror, she then read Manfred’s mind and dragged him into the street. 

Everyone stayed in their spot and watched, Olivia, Creek and Bobo on the restaurant's porch, Eve not far from them, Fiji stood at the sidewalk, Lem under the streetlight in front of the church, while Joe was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, Creek, come meet your superhero." Bowie chuckled, "Oh, yeah, she knows the truth about you."

"Please don't," Creek begged she shook her head. 

Creek turned her head away as Bowie continued. "You're a scam artist. I mean, yeah, you see ghosts but how are you helpful? You're not!"

Bowie raised her finger to point at Creek, "Oh, and your girlfriend? Oh, she's pissed. I mean, what is the point of screwing the town psychic if he's not even gonna give you a heads up that you're living with a serial killer? You failed—" Bowie was suddenly cut off by Eve. 

Eve had enough,”Hey, Bitch!” she called out and then charged at Bowie and knocked her down. 

Bowie stood back up, ready to attack when Joe flew into Bowie and sent her flying down the street and into the darkness of night. Joe paused for only a moment before charging towards Bowie and they clashed in the air. They wrestled before plummeting back down and through the roof of the church. 

Everyone outside the church heard the two battling inside. Joe was thrown out and rolled across the ground, everyone gathered closer to him, but were helpless in saving him. 

"Ever see an angel die?" Bowie asked them with a crazed smile, "It really is something," she finished. She knelt over Joe with her hand raised and glowing, ready to end him. 

A spine-tingling snarl caught everyone’s attention, they looked at the source and it was a demon with deep facial scars all along his deformed face, razor sharp teeth, and glowing eyes. 

"Chuy, no!" Joe called to him as he stood behind the group. 

Chuy ran toward Bowie with a roar, and the group split up to get out of the way. Charged into Bowie, knocking both of them to ground, allowing him to pin Bowie. 

"Get off me!" Bowie screamed as she fought to get him off of her. 

the Midnighters head for safe grounds as there was no telling what could follow. Chuy tears into Bowie’s throat with fairly little effort and soon she begins to cough up large amounts of blood, and eventually she dies. Closely following her death a large bright purple explosion that could be seen throughout town.

Chuy snarled and threw his head back in triumph as it revealed his mouth covered in blood, he turned around and saw Joe. 

"She's gone now. Bowie's gone." Joe said trying to calm him down but the response was only a threatening growl."It's time for you to come back to me.”

He pushes past Joe, headed directly for Lem they caught each others by the shoulder. Lem attempts to leech from him but something went wrong. Lem begins to cough up black blood as his eyes blacken and he falls to the ground. Manfred throws his ancestor's finger at Chuy, which only made him the new target. Eve pulls on his arm and drags by his arm away from Chuy, they hide behind playground equipment.   
Chuy soon found them, Eve pushed Manfred out of the way and Chuy grabbed and threw her to the ground. He raises his clawed hand ready kill Eve when Joe comes up from behind Chuy and pulled him away from her before pinning him against the merry-go-round, a light coming from his hand as he places it just above Chuy’s heart.

"I will kill you. Please don't make me have to," He begged at demonic Chuy , "It would destroy me. You said our connection would keep you strong. Please!"

The others watched as Chuy slowly changed back to his human self, sobbing as Joe holds him close.

After a long night, the Midnighters regroup at Home Cookin'. Lem and Olivia sat at one table, Chuy and Joe at another, while Eve sat with Emilio at a table cleaning his wounds. Fiji soons comes over with a bag of ice, she kneels down and places it at his side,”I really think you should go to the ER. Those ribs could be broken."

“I agree with Fiji on this, Emilio.” Eve said. 

Bobo then joined them and took a seat on Emilio’s right side. 

"It's okay. Even if they are, they'll reset next full moon. The transformation can fix things," Emilio explained.

Olivia came over to them and asked, “Hey Eve, i was just talking to Madonna about Bowie’s whole hostage thing here and she said something that really stood out to me, she said that one moment she was sitting down and then the next she was by the Rev with a note in her hand, and she could have swore she heard your voice. Care to explain that?” 

Fiji spoke up, “Olivia, i don’t really thinks it’s our place to as--”

“No, we need to know. Her being able to control the tree roots and being able to knock the Rev out the night he got out, and what about with happened with Madonna?” 

“Olivia!” 

Eve got up from her seat and said, “If you want to know how i’m able to do all that, all you needed to do is ask.”

“Well, i do want to know.”

Manfred moved to Eve side,”Eve you don’t have to do this.” 

“Well, i want to Manny. It’s better that they find out this way.” she looks at the Midnighters, “Everyone, hold onto your hats.” ripples went across her face and then the right half of her face became decayed and her eye a milky white. 

Everyone, except Manfred, Lem, and Emilio, was completely shocked by what they had just seen, Olivia even pulled out her gun. 

“Wha-what are you?” Fiji asked her. 

“I’m a Hexenbiest, a powerful and dangerous supernatural due to our many powerful abilities. Not to mention we’re also treacherous and manipulative but i’m not ” She explained.

“It’s true. Eve has worked hard ever since my Grandma took her in to be the opposites of other hexenbiests.” Manfred vouched for her. 

Eve retracted her hexenbiest form before saying,“Plus, my parents never wanted to be like other hexenbiest, they wanted me to be the complete opposite.” 

“Why are me just hearing about this now?” Bobo questioned

“Well, i was never sure on how you would all react.” she replied. 

Fiji moved closer to Eve and gave her a hug, she pulled back and said, “You don’t need to worry about that, after all this is Midnight.” 

“Thank you.” 

Joe and Chuy walked up to the group and said that they were heading home and before they left Chuy apologized. Not long after Lem and Olivia head back to their apartment above the pawn shop, and eventually they all went back to their homes. Eve helped Emilio back to his house and kissed him goodbye after helping get in bed. 

When she returned back to her house she saw Creek leaving the house while trying to hold back tears. Eve walked into the house and she saw Manfred looked like he had been punched in the gut. 

“What’s wrong, Manny?” she asked 

“Um, Creek and i, we just broke up.” he replied 

She walked closer and hugged him, “Oh, Manny, I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s alright she said that she needed to spend some time alone to figure some stuff out.” he said after the hug had ended. He then went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. 

“Well, as someone who has experienced one or two breaks in her life, it’s a good thing that she didn’t use the whole “It’s not you it’s me” line.” she said, when she sat down on the couch Manfred came back with two beers,”Okay, Manny i know that you just went through a break up but don’t you think it’s a little early to start drinking your sorrows away.” 

He sat down next to her and said, “Relax, i just want to sit down and drink for a while.” he handed her the beer. 

“Fine by me.” she accepted. 

The two continued to talk for sometime until Eve suddenly felt weird.

"Whoa…wh…what" she said feeling groggy. 

“You alright, Eve?” Manfred asked

“Ye--yeah,i just felt a little weird there for a second.” she tried to sit up but she felt weak and Manfred pulled her back down to the couch. 

“Maybe you had a little too much to drink, Eve. You should probably rest.” and those were the last words Eve heard before she closed her eyes and fell asleep. 

Once he was sure that she had fallen asleep, Manfred packed his things and tossed them into the Rv before driving off and leaving Midnight for good.


	8. Last temptation of Midnight

Eve woke up on the couch with Manfred nowhere to be seen. She gets up and checks the bedroom but he isn’t there and neither were his things. She walks out of the house and sees that the Rv is no longer there, she then runs out to the street, ignoring the people around her, and looks around before she woges and let out a screaming roar that broke all nearby car windows and set off their alarms, and making people cover their ears, before collapsing to her knees in the middle of the street and retracting her hexenbiest form.

She felt a pair of hands on her shoulders, she looks up to Emilio and she then lets out a few tears as he helps her up and back into her house. When they entered the house they took a seat on the couch and Eve sat there silently with face looking like she had a million thoughts going through her head, before a voice broke her out of the trace she was in. 

“Is something wrong Eve?” Emilio asked her. 

She wiped the tears off her face and said, “It’s Manny. He’s gone and i don’t know if he’s ever coming back.” she turned her head to face him, “Sorry for what happened out there.” referring to what only happened moments ago. 

“You don’t apologize, Eve. It probably was the shock of him leaving and not telling you. ” 

“Your probably right, i mean the only other time that i can remember doing that was when Xlyda died.” she paused, “ you know, i was young when my parents died so i was sent to live with my grandfather and he pretty much taught me all that i know about supernaturals, torturing, hunting, basically everything he wanted me to learn so i can be the most deadly Hexenbiest but when i ran away from him and Xylda took me in, she taught me how to be human. And since Hexenbiest are extremely loyal, i promised her that i would protect her and when Manny joined us i promised her i would protect him too.” 

“Must have been hard for you to lose your parents at a young age.” 

“It was but when Xlyda took me in i felt at peace.” she paused as ripples go across her face as she winced in pain.

“Eve are you alright?” he asked with concern. 

She took a breath before she spoke, “It’s the veil, it’s getting stronger.” she looked at him, “You feel it too don’t you, Emilio?” 

He looked down, “Yes, but i didn’t want to worry you about it.” 

“Well, we’re together so if you get to worry about me then it’s only fair that i get to worry about you.” she kissed him on his cheek, he looks up at her and they looked into each other’s eyes before sharing a small laugh. 

“Come on, let’s go get something to eat.” she got up and took his hand to get up. 

The two headed over to Home Cookin’ and went into the Midnighters room. When they took their seats a waitress had came took their orders. Emilio’s order had Eve concerned, after all why would a vegetarian order a steak. Not long after Olivia came in the Midnighter’s room.

“You hear about Manfred?” she asked dryly before she sat down. 

But before anyone could answer all the lights in the restaurant flickered. 

Madonna, having noticing the lights, said, “That is the 3rd time in the last hour that those lights have done that.” 

The three then carried on with their conversation. 

“It's a shame. I thought more of him.” Emilio replied. 

The waitress then comes in with Eve’s and Emilio’s food and places it in front of them. Emilio’s food caught Olivia's attention which is a fairly rare cooked steak. 

“You’re a vegetarian.” she voiced her thought 

 

“Usually. I've been anemic." He said 

"Iron. Nothing to do with the veil?"

"Honestly, I don't know," He admitted before asking, "How's Lemuel?"

Olivia thought for a second before speaking, "Hungrier than usual."

Eve then spoke, “Not really surprising though. The veil is breaking and as it breaks supernaturals will have a harder time controlling their actions, they’ll pretty much do what feels natural to them.” 

“Thanks for the information.” Olivia said 

“Your welcome.” 

“I spoke to Creek to ask her how she’s doing after Manfred had bailed and she’s holding up. I bet his dead ex went through this after he left her at the altar.” She voiced her thought. 

Eve then felt pain as ripples went across her face and this time one of the light blew out, which earned the attention of everyone and a few yelps. 

“I’m sorry.” Eve quickly apologized 

Olivia turned to Eve with a look of surprise and asked, “That was you?” 

“Yeah, it would happen occasionally when i was younger, back when i didn’t have much control. I usually have better control over it but it’s starting to get a bit more difficult.” she explained, 

“Anything we should be worried about when you do lose control.” Olivia wondered aloud. 

“Oh, just your everyday Hexenbiest.” Eve joked, “I’ll be dangerous, manipulative, treacherous, i won’t really care much for those around me, and it would be very wise not to get on my bad side.” 

“Really, and why is that ?” she questioned 

“Because we’re seldom to forgive and are capable of exacting out revenge in multiple ways that never end well for those who wronged us.” 

“Good to know.” Olivia casually said. 

Once they had finished their meals they went their separate ways. Once Eve entered her house she went into the kitchen and got a glass of water, and sat on the couch. Eve thinks back to when Xlyda had found and took her in, when Manny joined them, and when she realized she finally after so long had a family. Her thoughts were broken when she heard commotion outside. She stood up and ran outside, when she was out on the sidewalk she turned her head down the street and saw Bobo and Fiji and a elderly woman struggling to get out of Bobo’s arms. She as runs over to them she is joined by Emilio and Olivia. 

“What’s going on?” Eve asked. 

“I-I don’t know. “ Fiji answered frantically. “Janice, are you okay?” 

But janice didn’t answer she only sobbed. The small group of Midnighters gather in the church after Janice's suicide attempt. While the others stayed in the back at the end of the pews, Fiji led Janice to the front of the pews to treat her injuries and to talk about what had happened. Soon after, the door opened and an elderly man walked in.

"Janice?" The old man called, catching their attention. 

Janice got up and walked to her husband, with Fiji close behind her. Once the old couple had left, they discussed the recent events. 

"Joe said, as the veil frays, evil energy would seep out. Energy that would tap into our darker impulses." Emilio spoke 

"That's...not what Janice felt. It's not what I felt either. Janice and I heard a specific voice. It's a demon." Fiji disagreed,

"It never asked you to..." Bobo hesitantly asked her. 

"No!" Fiji exclaimed, "No, not yet, anyway. But it is getting louder, stronger, and I think it is feeding on death to do so."

"That would explain the deceased animals I find out front every morning," said Emilio. 

"But why pick on Janice?" Bobo asked.

"'Cause she's vulnerable," Fiji admitted quietly, "She's been sad. Her oldest moved away. Her mom passed."

"So there's a demon who's got a thing for death and Fiji, and a veil to hell, making evil run amok, and any one of us can be affected." Olivia voiced her thought. 

"Yep. And I'm done. You know, coming after me, that's one thing. But critters and Janice, they can't even put up a fight. It's just mean. And I'm putting a stop to it," Fiji announced before she left. Bobo and olivia soon left, leaving Eve and Emilio the only ones in the church. 

“Maybe i should stay here and help out with things.” Eve suggested 

“No, you don’t need to. Maybe you should go home it’s getting late.” 

“It’s fine Emilio, i can ---” She was interrupted by Emilio.

“I insist that you should go home, it’s been a hard day for with Manfred leaving.” 

“Sure, uh, i’ll just head home. Bye, Emilio.” 

Eve left the church and once she entered her house she collapsed as she suffered a severe head pain. She groans in great pain but it subsided as her eyes turned purple. She got up from the floor and walked to her trailer and grabbed a full length mirror and brought it back into the house and sets it in the living room. She walks into the kitchen and grabs a knife, and woges before cutting her palm and smears the blood on the mirror. 

“Show me who i seek.” she commands, she retracts her hexenbiest form. 

A dark smoke clouds the mirror and then as it clears it showing Manfred walking a lonely Texas road, then suddenly the dark smoke clouds the mirror but when it clears it doesn’t show Manfred but an older man whom Eve hates with all her being. 

The older man looks up from his book and chuckles before saying, “Well, it is so nice to see you eve, and after so long.” He paused, looking at her up and down, “I must say that my hard work has really paid off. You’ve grown into a fine young Hexenbiest. If only you didn’t run away, then who knows what you could have been.” 

“If i had stayed with you then i would have lost all of my humanity. I would have become a monster.” Eve said back as she clenched her fists. 

“Yes, instead you lived with that gypsy Xlyda, but you can’t fight your nature Eve and of all places you chose to stay you chose Midnight. And with the veil breaking, it won’t be long until you show them what a true Hexenbiest is capable of.”

“How do you know where i am?” she demanded 

“Oh child, i’ve always known where you are. Afterall, i do care for you.” 

“I did not ask to see you. I asked for Manfred.” Eve trying to change the subject. 

He smirked, “Are you sure? I know how the spell goes: you ask the mirror to show whom you seek and the mirror shows you. But there are times when you ask for one thing and the heart will ask for another. You asked for your adopted brother while your heart asked for your parent’s killer.” he stood up from behind his desk and walked closer to the mirror,” Isn’t that right, granddaughter.” His skin then became decayed and wrinkled, and his eyes entirely turned into a glowing red. 

Eve then woges and let out a screaming roar that shattered the mirror completely. She looked down at the shards and looked at her reflection as she retracted her hexenbiest form, she looked out the window and saw that it had gotten dark. When her eyes laid upon the church she felt something telling her to go there and she did. When she entered she saw Emilio reading at the pulpit and he looked up at her once she closed the door behind her. 

“You know, this day has been kinda crazy for me. I mean first my brother leaves, my powers are getting out of control, and i tried to find Manny but i got something else.” she took a breath. “I want to ask you something and i want you to be completely honest with me.” 

He came around the podium to face her, and said, "Absolutely. What is it?"

“This morning after i had a breakdown in the middle of the street you comforted me but after what happened at the restaurant you’ve distant yourself from me. I know that it has to do with the veil but it is because of me?” she asked, fearing the answer would be yes. 

"Naw," He said shaking his head, "It isn’t you, it’s because of me." He paused before he said, "Have a seat." The two took a seat on a pew. 

"Young Weres," Emilio began, "don't turn with a regularity. They're bloodthirsty, and wild, and they can turn even when there's no full moon. The feelings I'm having, I haven't felt that since I was a cub. Wild. Hungry."

"But that doesn't sound like you, Emilio." Eve said.

"Until I changed, it was me," He revealed, "When I got older, I forced myself to look at the pain I'd caused, and I remind myself of that all the time, as the veils pull grows stronger. That is why i distance myself from you, to protect you. " there was a moment of silence before he spoke, "I'm gonna lock myself downstairs."

Eve shook her head.”No, you don’t need to. I’ll stay here with you.” 

"I'd appreciate that," Emilio said, "The pull of darkness is strong tonight." He kissed her on the cheek. 

The two sat in silence for what seemed hours until Emilio grunted in pain and hunched over. Eve placed her hand on his back. 

“Emilio are you alright?” She asked with concern. 

“Run.” he softly said. 

“What?” 

“Run!” He shouted with a growling undertone. 

Eve ran to the doors but just as she was about to reach them she felt a hand on her wrist and suddenly she was spun around. She came face to face with Emilio, except he had sharp teeth and claws. She tried to break free but Emilio’s grip on her was too strong, and she knew that if she had any chance of getting free she would have to give in to the darkness. Ripples go across her face before she woges, she kicks him in the stomach causing him to stumble back and letting go of Eve.

“Now it’s a fair fight.” Eve said with a triumph smile. 

Emilio grabs his head and stumbles around as he tries to fight the weretiger. 

“This is going to be way too easy, and here i thought this was going to be a challenge.” she punched him in the face knocking him to the ground, “I don’t know what i ever saw in you. Oh wait, now i know it was the weretiger.” 

“This… isn’t you.. Eve.” Emilio managed to say. 

She crouched down to him, “See that’s where you’re wrong. This has always been me, i just haven’t embraced it until now.” she lifted him up by the collar but before she could punch him the door crashed open and Fiji ran in, and without thinking She threw the potion into Eve and Emilio’s open mouth.They instantly change back and Eve looked at Emilio with horror of what she had done. 

She lets go of Emilio and says,”I’m so sorry Emilio.” 

“You don’t need to apologize because i know that you would never say such things.” He then pulls her in a warm embrace. 

“Um, i’m really sorry to interrupt this really sweet moment but Manfred called me, said something is coming here", Fiji said. "We have to stop it."

Fiji then took them to the Pawn shop and when they arrived Olivia, Lemuel, Bobo, and Manfred. Eve’s eyes laid on Manfred and she started to walk towards him.

“Eve, i’m --” Manfred was then cut off by Eve punching him. 

“That was for leaving.” she then hugged him, “and this is for coming back.” 

When the hugged ended Manfred went on to explain what was going one. After Manfred informs every one of the new threat in Midnight, the Midnighters gather in the street to stop the offering before it's too late.

“This ain't anywhere near okay," Bobo said. 

"Protect this town from his wickedness." Emilio prayed

The faceless demon raised the lit lighter above its head as it said, "You will rise again."

the Faceless Demon raised the lighter above his head to make the gift of the sacrifice, Lemuel sped forward and grabbed it from him as Bobo, Olivia, and Marcus held him at bay.

But before the demon could light the pile of dead bodies Lem sped over to prevent the lighter from touching the pile of bodies. Bobo grabbed the demon's other arm as Olivia took the lighter from the demon's grasp and they held him at bay. 

"There isn't gonna be a funeral pyre," Manfred declared to the demon, "or a human sacrifice, or whatever the hell you think this is."

The demon’s attention drifted towards Fiji and it said, "You're Fiji."

"You don't talk to her!" Bobo shouted.

the demon ignored Bobo and it said. "When he rises, you will be his."

"Whose? Who are you talking about?" She demanded.

"Colcannar," it answered, "He's chosen you."

"Colcannar? That's his name?"

Manfred stepped up to pull her back and she fought in his grip, "Fiji, don't listen—" Fiji suddenly froze and had the look of fear on her face. 

Olivia asked, "What is it?"

"I hear him," She told her, before turning to face the pile of bodies behind her.

The ground cracked open as fire reached up from below and engulf the dead to make the sacrifice.

"Everyone, get back!" Manfred said as they stepped back. 

The demon managed to get break free of Bobo, Lem and Olivia. It threw Bobo to the ground and shrugged off Olivia and Lem. as soon as it was free the demon went after Fiji. 

Bobo cried out a warning, "Fiji!"

"Ah, no!" She shouted as it grabbed her.

"Let her go." Manfred ordered.

"It won't be long now," the demon announced, "He will rise. And he will take you as his."

"Let me go!" Fiji said as she struggled.

As Eve sneaked behind the demon she pulled out her sage blades and stabbed the demon in the shoulder blades which succeeded in the demon letting go of Fiji but failed when Eve took her place. 

"Spirits who he hurt, help me," Manfred called as he watched Eve struggle to break free of the demon’s hold, "Don't let this monster kill anyone else. End this. Drag him back to hell. Toss him in there!"

The spirits seized the demon, allowing Eve to escape, and pulled it into the fire and back to hell. 

The demon spoke as it struggled, "You can't stop this. You're too late. Kill me, but he will rise!" when the demon was in the fire it disappeared with the bodies. 

"How'd you do that?" Olivia questioned. 

"Old trick I used to do," Manfred answered, "But it didn't stop him. The sacrifice was made."

The Midnighters returned to their homes to try and get some rest after what had happen. The next morning, Eve laid awake staring at the ceiling and thinking about what her grandfather said but she was soon broken out of these thoughts when she felt Emilio’s hand intertwine with her’s. She turned to her side and kissed him good morning, when the kiss broke Emilio could tell that she was thinking about heavily by the look on her face. 

“What is wrong, Eve?” He asked. 

“Oh, um, it’s nothing, just something that happened yesterday no big deal.” she quickly answered. 

“Somehow I feel like your not telling me the truth.” they looked into each other’s eyes before Eve decided to tell the truth. 

“Fine.” she sighed, “It happened after I left the church, when I was home I felt this agonizing pain in my head and then suddenly it was gone, and I thought of a way to find Manny. And it worked until it showed someone I have not seen in years. And that person is my Grandfather.” 

“And how is seeing your Grandfather bad?” He said with a puzzled look. 

“Because he is one of the most powerful Zauberbiest, which is the male version of a Hexenbiest, and the man who killed my parents.” 

“What would possess him to kill your parents?” He questioned. 

“Because He knew of what power I would possess and he wanted to train me to be one of the most powerful and deadly Hexenbiest in the world, but my parents didn't want to raise me that way. One day when I was five, my parents were coming home from a party when a drunk driver hit their car so severe they died on impact. So, I was sent to live with him, since he was my only living relative, and he began what he had planned for me. And it wasn't until I was twelve that I had found out that He was behind my parents' death. I confronted him and he didn't even deny it. Then something inside of me snapped and i unleashed my anger, and at that same time i killed ten of my kind and i almost killed him before i realized that he didn’t deserve death. So, I ran away and never looked back.” she took a breath, “You must think i’m a monster now after hearing i killed ten people when i was only twelve.” 

He cupped her face and said,”No, i think that you took out your anger because you wanted to justify your parents’ death and i accept you as you.” They kissed passionately.


	9. Riders on the storm

A few days had passed since the faceless demon fiasco when Eve had gotten a text from her brother saying that Joe is back and he wants to meet with us. She left Emilio's house and headed for the tattoo shop, and but when she arrived at the shop Manfred was already there, and when she saw Joe she welcomes him back to Midnight. They catch him up to speed on all that has occurred in his absence, starting with the faceless demon.

“He said the demon was gonna rise..That by offering a truckload of dead bodies, it would usher in the beginning of the end.” Manfred informed Joe.

 

“I know, and I'm not surprised.The death and violence that's come to Midnight all precursors of the veil breaking.” He said

 

“What was it like last time?” Manfred asked

“I wasn't here when it first opened.” He sighed,” Bowie and I came later. By then, it was a war zone. Demons were everywhere, spreading death and suffering.”

 

“Sounds like your everyday apocalypse.” Eve stated,

 

“Well, yeah. It is.Starts with your typical apocalyptic weather events, this world reacting to the veil fraying.” Joe said

 

“What do you know about this demon? Colconnar?” Manfred asked as he stares at Joe’s painting depicting the apocalypse.

“I wasn't on a first name basis with the demons.I was just trying to kill as many as I could get my hands---” Joe was interrupted by a female voice from outside. They move to the window and saw it was Fiji in the middle of the street.

“I won't go with him! I'll never go with him! Leave me alone! I won't go with him! I'll never go with him!”she

shouted at the top of her lungs but there was no one out there with her.

“Who's she talking to?” Joe questions.

Manfred, Eve and Joe exit the shop to investigate.

As they slowly approach her, Manfred asks,”Fiji, you okay?” Bobo joins them soon thereafter.

But she doesn’t hear them and continues to shout at the non-existent person, “Leave me alone. I won't go with him. I'll never go with him.”

 

“Fiji, wake...wake up.” Manfred said to her.

“Don't say that! That's not true! I don't!”Fiji says as she suddenly projects fire from her hands in Manfred, Eve, Bobo, and Joe's direction. Lem then arrives, to de-escalate the situation, and leeches Fiji to a point of conciseness.

 

Bobo came running up and gently takes her from Lem,”Fiji! Fiji? Fiji? You all right?” She awakens in his arms, frightened and confused, and sees people around her.

“Were you sleep walking?” Manfred asked her as he approached.

“No.” she shook her head,” No, it was real.He was real.”

Bobo, Manfred, Eve and Creek, who have woken up from the commotion, helped Fiji inside while Lem and Joe stayed outside.

“So, this man you saw in your dream…" Eve started.

"Colconnar sent him." Fiji confirmed.

"Well, maybe it was just a nightmare," Creek argues.

"I wish," Bobo begs to differ.

Manfred took a breath before he walked closer to her, "While, you were sleepwalking, you kept yelling 'stop saying that'. Stop saying what?"

Fiji shook her head and said, "He said I'd give myself to Colconnar."

"That's not gonna happen," Bobo promised.

"Why is he after you?" Manred continued, "What's he want?"

"I don't know," Fiji whispered her reply.”But I don't want anybody getting hurt because of me."

"Stop!" Creek reminds her, "You are the one who's hurting now. We're taking care of you."

Manfred sat beside Fiji before quietly asking, "The man in your dreams, did he say anything else?"

She pause before saying quietly, "No," she then stood up and announced, "I'm gonna go make some tea," before she left the room.

With Fiji in the house preparing tea for herself and Creek staying, Manfred and Bobo join Lem and Joe on the front porch.

"I leeched her pain. There was a lot. It ran deep." Lem informed

"Of course she's emotional," Bobo defended, "She's being stalked by a demon."

"Yeah so emotional, she almost set us all on fire," Eve added.

"Colconnar's not the only threat to Fiji," Joe said, "She's a threat to herself, and others. We need to keep an eye on her."

"I'm not going anywhere," Bobo announced.

"Sun's almost up. I'll be back tonight," Lem said before leaving.

“So are he and Olivia better?” Manfred asked Bobo.

"Well, they haven't talked since the fight. He's sleeping in the back of the pawn shop. So no," He admitted with a sigh.

A moment of silence passed before Joe, Manfred, and Eve left. instead of going back to bed, Eve spent the rest of the night in her trailer packing a duffel bag with weapons and a book after she closed it she sat down at her desk as tried to find anything on Colconnar in her demon books before she fell asleep with her head in the book, Eve was awoken by a light shake she lifted her head from the book and turned to see Emilio smiling at her.

"Good morning, Eve," he said as he crouched down.

"Good morning, Emilio," she said before they shared a quick kiss.

“I asked Manfred where you were when I woke up and saw you didn’t come home, and he said you would be here most likely asleep."

Eve lightly laughed before saying, "Yeah, sometimes when there was a sighting of a supernatural, I would stay up and do research on it to determine if it was peaceful or not. And in the case it wasn't then I would hunt it before it could do further harm." she sighed,"And in this case, I've been trying to find stuff out about Colconnar so we can be prepared for him."

“Have you found anything?” he asked.

“Nada.” she replied.

“Maybe you should take a break for awhile.” he suggested

She rubs her face,”Maybe you're right.” she then stood up and stretched,”I’m gonna take a bath, brush my teeth and puts on some new clothes.” She kisses Emilio on his cheek before she left and went inside the house.

When she was done Manfred sent her a text to go to the tattoo shop, and when she got there she saw Manfred giving Joe one of their ancestor's journals.

"Xylda left us all our ancestors' demon-killing journals." Manfred told Joe.

"Are they all in Romanian?" Joe asked as he gestured at the text in the book.

"Uh, I've been using an app to translate but it's slow going," Manfred admitted as he began to pace. "Okay, so you say that we’re destined to fix this, that I'm—I'm the guy with the vision who can bridge the living and the dead, and Eve is the one with the blood of a survivor, whose powers have no rival."

"That's the prophecy," Joe stated before he glanced over the translated notes.

"Who sealed the veil last time?" Manfred wondered, as he stopped pacing.

Joe stopped reading to answer, "It didn't hold forever, obviously, but it was a shaman. Catori was his name. Weird guy..." Manfred started to pace, “"Tall. Covered in brands and tattoos," Joe finished.

"Didn't happen to tell you how he did it?"

"He didn't survive. He went out to the crossroads alone. We found the body a day later. In pieces. Broken and burned." He answered.

Manfred's face fell at Joe’s answer, but Eve’s eyes widen as she got an idea. "Where was Cartori buried?"

"On sanctified ground," Joe said as he stood and gazed through the window and gestured across the street, "Underneath the Rev's church."

"Well, let's dig him up. Dead bodies, we can work with." Manfred said as he and Eve stood beside Joe.

"Ah, you better work fast," He said, "The veil's opening."

They looked into the distance and saw a sandstorm heading right towards Midnight. Once they were able to get everyone evacuated Eve, Joe, and Manfred met up with Emilio back at the church. Taking a pair of lights, pickaxe and three shovels they head into the cellar of the church to dig up the shaman's body.

As they set of the lights Joe asked, "Where's Creek? Still with Fiji?"

"No. I told her to evacuate," Manfred answered.

"She's strong. Survived more than most." Emilio said.

"She doesn't need to survive this," He responded.

"You're complicating it. You love her. Be with her."

“Thanks for the advice.” Manfred says as they proceed to dig. Long after they started to dig they uncovered a miniature casket. “I thought you said he was tall.” He pointed out.

"There wasn't much left of him to bury," Joe replied.

They remove the top of the casket only to discover that it was completely empty.

"There has to be something left. Bones, clothes, anything," Manfred said as they leaned over the tomb to further inspect it.

Emilio moved around the stones and dirt but found nothing. "I'm afraid not."

"It has been a thousand years, Manny.” Eve said

“It was a long shot," Joe told them.

Manfred looked at Joe. "It was our only shot."

Suddenly the sounds of gunshots ring throughout the streets of Midnight.

"What was that?" Emilio questioned.

Everyone left the cellar to investigate. Eve was the first up her eyes widen as she saw tall, demonic and corpse looking figures.

Run!" she yelled as the others saw the tall and demonic corpses coming towards them.

They run across the street to Fiji’s were the others were waiting. Once they entered her house, Manfred turned around to close the door just in time because the demonic creature tried to come in.

"What the hell are those things?" Manfred asked.

"Wraiths. Their evil spirits heralding the arrival of a demon." Eve answered

"Colconnar's coming," Emilio stated as he looked at Fiji, with fear written on her face.

"Great, so now what do we do?" Olivia asks as she turns to Manfred.

Fiji and Bobo went into another room for her to treat his injuries while the others stayed and discussed their current situation. While the rest of them moved to get comfortable Manfred paced in the middle of the room.

"At least they're spirits. They can't come into this house." Emilio said trying to ease everyone’s worries

.

"And Colconnar? What about him?" Olivia asked.

"He's not a spirit," Joe told her, "He's alive. Once he rises…"

"We're screwed," She finished.

"She's right. We've got no way to stop them. No way to stop Colconnar. We're sitting ducks." Manfred says as he continues to pace.

"Quite the motivational speaker, aren't you?" Olivia said sarcastically as he passed her.

"No, I'm—I'm a realist and my realistic self knows there's only one thing we can do," he turns back and looks at Olivia "Get out."

"So you bail just to come back and tell us all to bail?" she questioned.

"I'm not saying we bail. I'm saying we get Fiji somewhere safe, we regroup, rethink come back with a plan to kill the wraiths and Colconnar."

"Joe and I are going to the garage," Emilio said before he and Joe left.

Olivia stepped closer to Manfred. "Well, before we leave, I need you to wake up a vampire."

Manfred took a deep breath and nodded in agreement. While Manfred and Olivia left to go wake up Lem, Eve went to her trailer and got the duffel bag she rejoins the group and head to the vampire bus.

Fiji stops, "No, no, no. I can't, I can't, I can't leave..." she says refusing to go.

"Are you crazy? We gotta get you out of here!" Bobo says, trying to get Fiji on the bus.

"I can't leave him!" Still refusing to leave without Mr. Snuggly.

"Give me your car keys. I'll get him." He coaxes her to get on the bus.

"Okay." She gives in and hands him her keys, "The cat carrier's by the door!" she and Bobo then entered the bus.

"Yeah, you-you go."

"Don't get killed, Manny," Eve says and waits for his answer.

"Don't worry I'll catch up." He says before he leaves to get Mr. Snuggly and Eve went into the bus.

Eve closed the door behind her, Olivia notices Manfred isn't with her.

"Where's Manfred?" She asked.

"He went to go get Mr. Snuggly, Fiji gave him her keys he'll catch up when he has the cat," Eve answered.

Emilio, Olivia, Lem, Bobo, Eve, and Joe listen to the radio as a state of emergency is being issued for Roca Fria County. Dust storms have been reported throughout the county. They are advised by the local radio station to pull aside should they get caught in the storm.

“That's not an option.” Emilio said.

Eve’s phone rings, she sees the caller ID is Manfred, and she answers, "Hey, Manny did you and Snuggly get out ok?"

"Yeah. Just had a little run-in with a wraith but Creek showed up and got us out, we're right behind you."

"Good. Hey, Bobo." Eve calls out, "Tell Fiji that Manfred got Snuggly and that there behind us." Bobo Nods and left to tell Fiji. "Hey, Manny I'm gonna put you on speaker."

"Got clear roads ahead." Emilio announced.

"Great. I booked a row of rooms at a Knights Inn in Waco." Olivia said

"That's a couple of hours away," Lem commented.

"Guys... Behind us," Manfred told them in a wary tone.

Emilio looks in the side mirror, "Olivia!"

She walks over and looks in the mirror to see the sandstorm getting closer, "It's following us?" she gasped.

"Creek," They heard Manfred say over the phone.

"Yeah?" They heard her ask.

"No pressure, but faster."

"Okay."

"We gotta get some distance," Manfred told them.

"Well, we can't outrun it in a tour bus." Olivia retorted.

Bobo came up to the front of the bus and said, "We need to hole up somewhere without windows, somewhere nearby."

"Where?" Olivia asked

Bobo points to the next right, off-road, as he says, "Take that road. I know the perfect place."

Emilio then made a sharp right turn, They pull up to the Cartoon Saloon. The Midnighters, except Fiji, rush into the bar. Fiji stands and stares out at nothing before Manfred pulls her inside the bar and shuts the door behind them.

"So much for outrunning the storm," Lem commented as he removes the hat and scarf, "It's following us."

"No," Fiji said with a shaky voice, "It's me. It's...It's following me."

"Fiji...There's something you're not saying?" Bobo asked as he stepped closer to her.

"If you know why the storm is chasing you, it's time you tell us,"Manfred tried to reason.

Fiji took a breath before she spoke, "I don't know why Colconnar's after me."

Eve stepped in front of Fiji and said,"You, me and Manny were there, the first-time Colconnar showed.He threw me and Manny out. But went after you. He grabbed you."

"G—Get out of the way," Fiji stammered as she tried to walk away.

"He's been talking to you ever since," Eve stated, she walked next to Fiji and grabbed her arm so she couldn't leave, "Has he told you something? Why he's after you and no one else?"

"I said I don't know!" Fiji yelled, causing one of the light fixtures above to pop.

"Fiji! What is going on?" Olivia demands.

Eve let go of Fiji and stepped away to give her some space. Fiji doesn't respond she only looks at them.

"We're all here to protect you. You owe us the truth. What…" Bobo spoke calmly before Fiji interrupted him.

"I'm a virgin!"She blurted out.

The room went quiet until Fiji speaks again.

“I'm a virgin witch, a powerful virgin witch, and that is why it wants me.” She admits.

"Well, um…thanks for being honest. I, uh…" Manfred said trying to make the situation a little less awkward.

"Yeah. Glad to know the truth." Joe said following Manfred’s lead.

"I'm not," Lemuel said bluntly.

"What difference does it make?" Creek questioned.

"Virgin witches, especially older ones,"Fiji explained, "we're rare. Powerful. That thing wants my magic."

"Well, it's not getting anywhere near—" Bobo stepped forward as he tried to comfort her.

Fiji stepped back and exclaimed, "No, please don't! This is the most embarrassing moment of my life, so if you don't mind, I'm just gonna need a minute." She turned to walk away as she picked up a bag but stopped in her track and then turned to Manfred and held out her hand, "The cat."

Manfred handed the cat carrier over to her before she walked into another room.

Everyone moved around the room and sat down. Eve placed her duffel bag down and pulled it out. She doesn't open it, but she looks at it until she heard a voice.

"Thinking about doing some reading?"

She looked up from the book and saw it was Emilio who asked her.

Eve shook her head and said, "No, no it's just a family heirloom that I got from my parents, including my trailer, after they died and the last resort that I hope I won't have to use."

He takes her hand in his as he says, "Don't worry, I know that when the time comes you'll make the right choice." He kisses her on the cheek.

Eve saw Manfred heading into the room that Fiji had set up in and decided to follow him, and taking the book with her. In the pool room, there are collections of books and other things covering the pool table.

"These are some curses my ancestors used. To punish the wicked. To vanquish demons," Manfred explained as he laid down the journal on the pool table, "Here, I, uh, translated what I could." He shows her the translated notes.

"This is very dark magic," Fiji commented as she read the notes.

"I can do you one better," Eve said as she placed her book on the table in front of Manfred and Fiji. "This book contains centuries worth of dark and powerful Hexenbiest rituals, spells, and potions."

"Eve, you are you sure about this, you know that what's in that book is dangerous," He warned her.

"I know that Manny, but Colconnar is dangerous too and I have a feeling that we're gonna need to take risks."

Fiji walked around the table to a cylinder shaped bag and opens it, “Gypsy dark magic, Hexenbiest magic meet witchcraft dark magic,” she said as she pulls out a leather covered book and places it on the table next to Manfred’s and Eve’s.

After some time the three head into the main room and gain the other's attention.

"We were getting worried," Joe spoke.

"Might still want to be worried," Manfred stated.

"We combined a curse, with an ancient witches' spell and Hexenbiest magic to get answers," Fiji explained

"Problem is," Manfred continued, "it's, um…it's black magic.

"Which means it needs a sacrifice." Eve finished.

"Okay," Olivia says with acceptance, "An eye? Finger?" She guessed.

"A life," Fiji choked out her answer, "Answers given in exchange for a life."

"So that's a no," Creek says.

Emilio stands up from his seat next to Creek and says, "Take me."

"What?" Eve questioned, feeling almost as if someone had punched her in the stomach.

"Don't be ridiculous Emilio," Lem said as he stood from his seat at the bar.

"I'm not," Emilio replied, "I've taken many lives…"

"We all have," Olivia argued.

"…but saving Midnight can be my way of making amends."

"Everybody, just shut up," a southern accented voice announced from the stage, and it was Mr. Snuggly, "Take me. I'm sick of this life."

"Is that cat talking?" Olivia asked, her voice filled with shock.

"He is," Bobo answered bluntly.

"I'm really old. My bones ache. I've spent the last seven years without her. I want to see Mildred," He stated his reasons to the Midnighters.

"You've been by my side for so long—" Fiji said but was interrupted by Mr. Snuggly.

"But I never liked you."

Fiji nodded and said, "I know."

The three then went to the pool room for the supplies and once it was all set up, Eve and Fiji stood face to face while the others are next to them.

“Okay, now that everything is set up all we need now is the blood of the caster and a Hexenbiest mixed together.” Eve informed them.

“So, we just cut you and Fiji then mix the blood together.” Olivia said.

"No, we have to be cut at the same time and as that is happening our blood is mixing. " Eve corrected.

“How do we do that?” Bobo asked.

“With this.” she said as she pulls out athame before she turns to Fiji, “Fiji, i want to place your hand under mine.” Eve held her hand out and Fiji did as told.

“Is there anything we should be worried about?” Fiji asked.

“Aside from losing bits of our soul, nothing." She hands the athame to Olivia and Manfred hold a bowl under their hands. Eve turns to the group, “Lem could you hold me down for this?” she asked him.

“What for?” He asked, his voice filled with confusion.

“This calls for Hexenbiest blood, so I’ll be in my Hexenbiest form, and I don’t how this is going to turn out so I'd rather be safe than sorry."

Lem moves behind Eve and places his hands on her shoulders, ready to hold her down.

“Ready?” Eve asked Fiji, and she nods in agreement, Eve woges before saying, "Let's do this."

Olivia plunges the knife in their Hands, Eve and Fiji try not to pull their hands out as their blood slowly drips into the bowl.

"Okay, I think we got enough," Manfred announced. Olivia then pulled the knife out. Fiji looks at her hand and sees that it is already healed.

“How is this possibly?” She asked Eve.

“Hexenbiest blood has special qualities that our male counterparts don’t have.” Eve answered

They then gathered in a circle with Mr. snuggly in the middle. Fiji pours the bowl of blood around Mr. Snuggly.

"Give Aunt Mildred a kiss for me," She whispered to him, then she closed her eyes, held her palms open and her head back before she spoke, "We offer this life for an answer."

She took in a gasping breath before she exhaled a large black cloud of smoke that flowed into the circle and surround Mr. snuggly but the cloud of smoke soon dispersed.

"Hey, why am I not dead?" He questioned.

Suddenly Manfred and Eve begin to turn a corpse like blue as they stumble back.

"Manfred!," Creek called as she noticed that the two were not right.

“Eve!” Emilio called, his voice filled with concern.

The two then dropped to the ground. When they open their eyes, they found themselves standing in the streets of a peaceful and ghost town like Midnight. They heard the sound and turned their attention to the church, and they saw Catori, the shamen that closed the veil over a thousand years ago.

"You're the shaman.” Manfred stated,”Cato—"

"Catori.” He said,” Any you are?"

"Manfred," He answered as Eve did the same, "Eve."

"So this is…this is death?" Manfred asked quietly.

"This is death." Catori confirmed as he nodded.

"I like it here.” Manfred replied

“It's peaceful.” Eve commented as she looked around.

“A lot more peaceful than Midnight is at the moment." He stated bluntly,"Is Xylda around?"

"Don't you have a question for me?" Catori asked his own question.

"Yeah. Sorry," Manfred replied, "How do we close the veil?"

The shaman suddenly appears in front of them. He then leans forward and whispers, how to close the veil, in their ears. Once they had received the information they needed, Manfred and Eve awoke and gasp for air as their hearts pounded.

The others gathered around as they hear Creek let out a surprised gasp as she got off of Manfred's chest. Eve looked up and realized that Emilio was cradling her. Her hand reached for his face and they pulled each other into a kiss and he helped her up when it broke.

"Hey! Your heart was stopped," Bobo told them as he crouched down.

"What the hell?" Olivia questioned in shock.

"Fiji's spell," Manfred told them, "It worked."

The groups eyes widened in surprise.

"You got answers?" Joe asked.

"Yeah," Manfred said as he looked at Creek, who had a soft smile on her face,"I met the shaman.

Eve looked around the group and someone was missing, “Hey, where's Fiji?" she asked

The group of MIdnighters ran outside.

"Fiji!" he called out as he burst through the doors and into the parking lot with the others close behind.

"She's going to him," Manfred said as he passed Bobo, he stared out into the darkness of the night and at Midnight in the distance.


	10. The virgin sacrifice

As the sandstorm cleared up, on the vampire bus, everyone rushed back to Midnight to rescue Fiji. As the drove to Midnight, they began to discuss Colconnar and what they were going to do to stop him. 

 

"We know where they're taking her. Going back to Midnight, bringing her to Colconnar." Manfred said as he turned to face the others. 

 

"To use her." Everyone laid their eyes on Joe." When the demons came through the veil last time, they used women to go forth and multiply." He explained 

 

Bobo spoke as he drove"That thing wants to... "

 

"It wants to have sex with her," Olivia stated from her seat in the front. 

 

"Which is utterly awful." Creek commented

 

"But not surprising." Lem said from the back room, "Fiji's as powerful a natural witch as I've ever seen." 

 

"All the more powerful because she hasn't..." 

 

"Yes, we know." Emilio interrupted Manfred, " She's a virgin."

 

"I don't give a damn why it wants her. It's not gonna lay a finger or a claw or whatever the hell it has on her." Bobo argued.

 

Olivia placed her hand on his shoulder, "We won't let it." promised.

 

Manfred and Eve then went on and told them about what happened they met the shaman.

 

"When me and Eve died, the shaman said the first demon was gonna rise on the night of a blood moon, that's tonight," he informed them. 

 

"Well, besides the creepy name, what does that mean?" Creek questioned

 

"Xylda and I wouldn't even do readings on nights of blood moons." he went on to explain, "They create a potent psychic environment that can be a conduit for evil. It's too dangerous." he looked at his sister before saying, "Especially for Eve." 

 

"Why's that?" she asked.

 

"Because the night of a blood moon is a night most holy to my kind. The blood moon amplifies our abilities, awakening our darkest sides by giving in to our true nature." Eve explained. 

 

"It's also a full moon," Emilio informed them. 

 

"This just keeps getting better," Lem said sarcastically. 

 

"Fiji's spell worked. We know how to kill Colconnar." Manfred said. "Creek, Olivia, Bobo, you guys find Fiji. Keep her safe until Colconnar's gone." He instructed them. 

 

"Done." Bobo agreed

 

"How are you gonna kill it?" Creek asked

 

"Details aren't important." Manfred bluntly said.

 

"Aren't they?" she argued.

 

"Before we worry about killing Colconnar, what are we gonna do about the wraiths?" Olivia questioned.

 

Bobo then stated, "They barely touched me burned right through my clothes, hurt like hell."

 

"What kind of weapons did we bring?" Manfred wondered. 

 

Everyone, except for Bobo, gathered all the weapons they brought with them and placed them on the countertop. 

 

"This is everything," Olivia told them. 

 

Joe picked up an ax and said, "Wraiths are spirit manifestations of evil. An ax isn't gonna cut it." He then placed it back on the counter-top.

 

"Good thing I brought my goodies, " Eve said before she pulled out some of the weapons from her duffle bag and placed them on the counter-top, "This is only a small portion of what I brought for the wraiths, half of this stuff is pure silver, other half is etched with incantation or symbols that ward off evil.”

 

"I like it." Manfred picked up a knife."We go old school" He suggested before explaining, "They're evil and evil doesn't like holy water. It burns, they recoil."

 

"And we'll clear a path to Fiji," Bobo added. 

 

Creek came back with a water bottle, "Will this do?"

 

Emilio then took it and said, "Yeah, I can sanctify this and bless these weapons."

 

"And while they're with Fiji, we head to the pawn shop," Eve said.

 

"Why the pawn shop?" Lem questioned her.

 

"There's stuff there we need," Manfred replied. 

 

Later, Eve was sitting down and staring at her blades and thinking back to what happened at the cartoon saloon and wondered if she should talk to Emilio about it. She had begun to stand up when she heard a voice that made her blood boil. 

 

"Getting ready for battle, my granddaughter." 

 

She looked up, and instead of seeing her reflection in the window, she saw her grandfather. 

 

"What are you doing here?" She was quick to ask. 

 

He grinned as he said, "You always were quick to the point. And to answer your question; I'm simply here because I'm concerned for the safety of your life..." He paused, "and your heart. Especially after that little stunt, your so called boyfriend pulled." 

 

"How do you know about Emilio?" she asked. 

 

"The same way how I've always kept an eye on you. After all, I am the one that taught you and I did invent it." He replied 

 

"You may have invented it grandfather, but I perfected it. And you have no right to meddle in my life, let alone my love life." 

 

"If he truly loved you then he wouldn't have offered himself as a sacrifice for the spell, but yet he did." 

 

"Stop it! I know that all your doing is trying to in my head and it's not working, so stop it!" She demanded.

 

"Fine." He sighed, "But all you have to do is ask him." He said before he vanished. Leaving Eve staring at her own reflection and thinking about what he had said. 

 

With their sanctified weapons in hand, the Midnighters approach Midnight on foot. They stopped before they entered Midnight, and Manfred said, “"We protect Fiji, kill a Demon, close a portal to Hell. Sounds like a good enough plan, right?"

 

"My skin is burning," Lemuel replied. "Stop talking."

 

“Let’s go.” 

 

They continue on their path into Midnight. As they got closer to Midnight they broke off into their groups. Manfred, Lem, Joe, Emilio, and Eve hid behind a building across the street from the pawn shop and Olivia, Bobo, and creek hid by the church waiting for the right moment to go Fiji’s. 

 

Joe called Creek and once she answered he said, “They're in front of the church. Looks like all the wraiths are by you.”

 

“Yeah, looks like. And they look different, like more solid.” She commented over the phone. 

 

“Doesn't matter. They're still spirit manifestations. They can take any shape they want. They're evil, and consecrated weapons will work.” He told her before the called ended. 

 

Lem, Manfred, Joe, Emilio and Eve walked into the middle of the street completely unnoticed. Joe whistles to catch their attention, which opens up the opportunity for Lem to shoot one of them with a crossbow causing it to disperse.

 

“Well, that was effective.” Emilio commented. But soon after the wraith quickly re-materialize.

 

“Yeah, but not for long.” Eve said as the wraiths charged at them.

 

Guns, spears, and knives, all weapons used by Manfred, Joe, Emilio, Eve, and Lem to hold off the wraiths long enough for the others to make it over to Fiji's. When they saw that Olivia was covering Creek and Bobo, they took cover in the pawn shop. Manfred and Eve searched the front room of the pawn shop looking for what they needed but Manfred struggles to stay focused due to all the voices of the dead inside his head.

 

Eve walked to her brother and placed a hand on his shoulder making him jump, “You okay, Manny,”

 

“Y-yeah I’m fine.”

 

“What exactly are you looking for?"Joe asked. 

 

"The Shaman said in order to fight evil, I need to know evil," Manfred answered, “There are spirits tethered to objects here. Some of them are evil. You think any of them are demonic?” he asked as he looked at the items on the shelves. 

 

"I'm sure. With all the Supernatural creatures pawning things here over the years. I'll see what I can find." Lem said before he pulled up his collar to cover his face and headed into the back room.

 

"You said you need to know evil," Joe said to Manfred before he glanced towards Eve and asked, "What about Eve?"

 

“Same as Manny but i also have to embrace darkness within me.” She answered before she further explained,”I’ll have to become what i fear the most: becoming what my Grandfather wanted me to be, the Hexenbiest he trained me to be.” 

 

After sometime Manfred decided to call Creek and to know if they made it alright. He was told that they had made it safely to Fiji’s and said i love you to creek, she questions if he's only saying this because he doesn't think he's going to survive the battle with Colconnar. Does it matter, Manfred asks. It didn't matter. At least not to Creek. She reciprocates these feelings, telling Manfred that she loves him as well.

 

Lem returns to the front of the shop after collecting the various demonic possessed objects.

 

“You wanted evil.” He gestures to a small antique box with small white items in it,” A, by all accounts, happy and successful family man, found that on a hike. That afternoon, he beat his wife and six children to death. Said a demon made him do it.” 

 

“Sounds perfect.” Manfred commented 

 

With the item Manfred and Eve heard crying and pleas for it to stop.

 

“Why are they crying?” He questioned 

 

“Iron spider.” Lem answered.”Used to torture witches during the Inquisition.” He picks up the next item and shakes it,”Voodoo hoof rattle.”

 

As the rattle shakes Manfred headache worsens and Eve places a hand on his shoulder when she noticed the pain on his face.

 

“What is it?” Lem asked 

 

“It's like an ice pick behind my eye.” Manfred answered, “Man, I miss my pills.” he sighed. 

 

“Will this help?” He hands him a flask, hoping it will help subside the pain. 

 

“Any port in the storm.” Manfred said as he took a drink from the flask. 

 

“So how exactly do you plan to know evil?” Lem asked. 

 

“I plan to let evil hijack me.” Manfred quickly answered. 

 

“These are ancient, malevolent, demonic spirits.” He stated

 

“I’ve explained that to him but he’s still going through with it.” Eve told him. 

 

“It could kill you.” Lem told Manfred. 

 

“Let's hope it doesn't.”

 

“Do you want some blood?” He asked Manfred with earned a questioning look,” My blood?”

 

“Thanks, but no thanks.Vampires aren't exactly efficient against demons.” Manfred answered

 

“I know. And, no, it wasn't to turn you, Manfred.I'd have to feed on you for that.” He clarified, “Vampire blood makes humans stronger, heal faster. There are side effects, but being possessed by demons could have side effects too.”

 

“I'll stick to this.” Manfred said as he gestured the flask. He looks down at a damaged baby doll and heard a creepy laughter. 

 

“I have some more items in the basement, if you want.” Lem suggested. 

 

“These... these will be enough.”

 

“Okay.” Lem then left the room. 

 

Manfred picks up the doll and hears a man cackling, Eve then left to prepare herself for what she had to do and went into another room. After some time she looked at herself in the mirror and woged. She didn't even notice that Emilio had walked in. 

 

He spoke, "Beautiful." and startled Eve she retracted as she turned around to face him. 

 

He walked up to her and said, "Sorry I didn't mean to scare you." 

 

"No, no, you just got me by surprise." She answered, her face fell. 

 

"Is everything alright?" He asked. 

 

"Yeah, everything is fine." She then thinks back to what her grandfather said, "You know, there is actually something that is bothering me." She took a breath, "I want to why you offered yourself back at the cartoon saloon." 

 

He looked down before looking up at her, "I offered myself because we needed answers." 

 

"That can't be the only reason, Emilio. My grandfather said that if you loved me you wouldn't have offered yourself but I guess you don't love me, " she said as she tried to fight back her tears. 

 

"I do love you, Eve. I love you. I just thought you deserve someone better than me."

 

"What?" She questioned. 

 

"I've been in love with you from the moment i saw you walked into the restaurant when you first arrived. But I knew that a woman like you would never love a man like me. So, i thought that if i offered myself it would give you a chance at finding someone who does deserve you." He explained. 

 

"Don't say things like that Emilio. To be honest, I felt something for you the morning after you were let out when I kissed you, And the reason I was distant from you was that I was afraid you wouldn't like me when once you knew about me being a Hexenbiest." 

 

Emilio didn’t say anything to that he just cupped her face with his hands and passionately kissed her. They only ended the kiss when they needed to take a breath. 

 

“Did you just do that to make up or because that i might not survive?” Eve asked

 

“I did it because i love you.” They kissed again but the kiss was cut short when they heard someone cough. They turned their attention in the direction the sound came from and saw Lem, Manfred, and Joe standing there. 

 

“Uh, we should, um, get started.” Manfred said. 

 

They all went into a another room, Manfred and Eve setting everything up for the demons to possess them. 

 

“Have you ever been possessed by a demonic spirit?” Emilio wonders as Manfred and Eve placed the items in the room.

 

“Angry ex-husband? Yes. Demon? No.” Manfred answered. 

 

“And besides you know what they say: fortune favors the bold." Eve quipped, “So there is a really good chance of us succeeding.” 

 

“So you intend to be possessed by multiple demonic spirits on the night of a blood moon? What happens if you can't control those spirits once they're inside you?” 

 

“Well, then, we're all screwed, aren't we?”

 

“Manfred, Eve, are you sure about this?” 

 

“Hell no, I'm not sure. But the prophecy says, a man of vision who can bridge the worlds of the living and the dead. And a woman whose powers have no rival and has the blood of a survivor, right? Never mentions what kind of dead, so this is the only way that makes sense to me. So unless anyone else has a better idea, this is what we're going with.” Manfred argued 

 

“What do you need from us?” Joe asked. 

 

“Joe, Lem, if you can stay close, in case I can't control these demons?” 

 

“Emilio, it's almost nightfall. The moon’s about to rise, you should probably get somewhere.”

 

“May I use your basement?” Emilio asked Lem. 

 

“Of course.” He replied. 

 

“I will pray for you until I turn. See you in the morning.” He said to them before he took his leave. 

 

With the sun setting and their time running low, Manfred and Eve carried on with their plan. 

 

Manfred and Eve then spoke in unison,”Spirits tethered to these objects, we call to you.  
we want to release you from your binds to this world. If you can hear us, give us a sign. We invite you, cross over, let us see you.” They open their eyes and see smoke coming from the objects manifesting into four demons,.

 

“Is it working?” Joe asked, not being able to see the demonic spirits. 

 

“Oh, yeah, it is.” Manfred and Eve answered. 

 

“I'm offering a way out. Help us, and you don't have to be tethered to this world anymore, in limbo.  
You can get out of this pawn shop.” Manfred tried to persuade the demons. 

 

“Let me try something Manny.” Eve whispered to him before she woged, “Do you wanna know what's going to happen when Colconnar wins, he’s going to take the whole planet for himself and from what i heard he isn’t that type to share. Help us out and you can go back and do what you do best. So, lets make a deal.” 

 

After some contemplation, the demons agree to the deal, the demons enter their bodies through their mouths, one after the other, causing a transformation of sorts. 

 

“Should we intervene?” Lem questioned 

 

“No.” Joe answered as he kept his eyes on Manfred and Eve. 

 

The rise of Colconnar is upon them. He enters Midnight from hell, “Bring the virgin witch to me.” He demands. 

 

However, he would first have to get past Manfred and Eve, who have undergone some kind of transformation after having allowed multiple demonic spirits to possess them. Manfred’s voice has deepened and his eyes glow red. And like Manfred, Eve’s eyes turned red and her voice became raspy.

 

“Not gonna happen.” They said in union. 

 

Colconnar walked towards and said, "Evil is making you powerful. Join us."

 

"Pass," Manfred declines the offer by shooting a fireball at Colconnar, though this does little to no damage.

 

"Your mistakes," Colconnar snarled and fires back, knocking Manfred to the ground while Eve dodges the attack. Eve races to her brother and helps him to his feet. Suddenly, a huge surge of energy is released. This surge of energy sends a ripple effect throughout Midnight, dissipating the wraiths, and angering Colconnar.

 

"NO! Fiji, what did you do!” Colconnar roared in frustration. ”Now you all die!" 

 

Explosion after explosion, Colconnar seems determined to destroy Midnight, and everyone in it. Manfred And Eve take cover behind a car as Manfred is too weak in his current state to defeat Colconnar. Lem rushes out of the pawn shop and sees how weakened Manfred is. 

 

“You need more power.” He said and goes back in the shop to retrieve another demonic possessed item in hopes that it'll increase Manfred's power, and level the playing field. While Eve comes out from behind the car and uses her telekinesis to send a car door at Colconnar which gains his attention. 

 

“Didn’t anyone tell you: Midnight is off limits!" She roared at the Colconnar before she threw a fireball it, and causing it to stumble back. 

 

Joe stabs Colconnar from behind with his sword, but it does little to no good. The sword breaks in two. Joe then attempts to use his light to defeat the demon, but Colconnar appears to be much stronger as he knocks Joe out of sight.

 

Lem soon returns with an item for Manfred and says,”Here, the man who sold it thought he was the devil himself.” 

 

Just like before, Manfred allows the demon from within the object to possess him, which causes his eyes to blacken, as well as his his mouth and nose to ooze an unfamiliar black substance. And said in a demonic voice, “This is over.” and joins his sister’s side. 

 

“So, nice of you to join me brother.” She said. They then joined hands and combined their powers. They raised their hands and shot a bright yellow ray of energy from his hands. However, Colconnar is able to do the same, and so commences a struggle of power between the three. 

 

“Get out of Midnight!” The two said in union says they delivered the fatal blow to Colconnar. With the veil still open Manfred and Eve used this opportunity to send the demons possessing them back to hell. 

 

“You're free now.” They told the demons within them, “Get out of me and go to hell.” 

 

Large black clouds of smoke smoke violently shot out of their mouths and goes through the veil before it closes. Manfred and Eve drop to the ground weakened from the demons leaving their bodies. Joe, Lem, Bobo, and Fiji gather around Manfred and Eve as they got up on their feet. 

 

“Are you all right?” Lem asked. 

 

“I’m gonna have to get back to you on that.” Eve said.

 

“I'm not sure. But Colconnar's gone.” Manfred replied. 

 

“He is.” Joe confirmed.

 

“You're safe.” Manfred said to Fiji..

 

“We all are. Thank you.” She said to Manfred and Eve. 

 

“Hey, Lem, there's something you need to know.” Bobo said in a solemn tone. He tells Lem about Olivia's injuries, and she is in critical condition. Lem, Manfred, and Eve rush to the hospital to get to Olivia and before Lem burns from the rising sun. They managed to make it to the hospital they rush through the halls and found Creek and Madonna. 

 

“Creek.” Manfred addressed. 

 

She stood up from the bench and walked over to them and said,“I'm sorry. She's hanging on, but they said there's nothing more they can do.She gave me a message for you.”

 

“She can tell me herself. Where is she?” He quickly asked, Creek then gestured to Olivia’s room. As he walks to Olivia’s room the sun catches the side of his face, however, this does very little to deter him from reaching her. 

 

A little while later, Eve hears a whisper of a voice making ripples go across her face. 

 

"I'm gonna walk around for a bit." She excused herself from her brother and Creek. Manfred nodded before she left. Once she was out of sight Eve walked into a bathroom that was nearby and locked the door. 

 

She looked at the mirror with anger, "Alright, what do you want now?" She demanded.

 

A chuckle came before her reflection in the mirror was replaced by her grandfather. 

 

"I just wanted to check up on you, and see how you were doing after your little battle with colconnar." He said before asking, "So, did you sort things out with your boyfriend?" 

 

"If you must know, yes, he explained why he offered himself." 

 

He smiled, "Good. I was hoping for you two to work it out." He paused and sighed, "I know there were times when it seemed like I didn't care about you, but I did which I why I wanted to raise you to be a strong woman. And I'm proud of the woman you've become." He vanished and Eve was left staring at her reflection in the mirror completely stunned at what she had just heard. 

 

After she left the bathroom and closed the door behind her, she started to make her way to her brother and Creek but then her phone rings she took it out and looked at the ID, and it read Emilio. 

 

"Hey, morning already," She answered.

 

"Yeah, Joe told me that you and Manfred defeated Colconnar but had to go to the hospital and that Olivia was injured." 

 

"Yeah, Creek told us that she wasn't doing very well but Lem decided to intervene on it, so I have a pretty good feeling that she's gonna be alright." She told him.

 

"That's good to hear. I was also glad to hear that you and Manfred defeated Colconnar and saved Midnight."

 

She smiled,"Thank you."

 

"Eve, I think that you should know that before I turned, I was terrified by the thought of losing you when there's nothing that I could do to stop it." 

 

Eve was taken back by what he said, "You know, usually I'm the one who has to worry about losing someone, namely Manny, and it's kinda nice to hear that you care about me, and just so you know there was a moment while I was possessed by the demons that I felt myself slipping away and giving into the darkness, but then I remembered the people who saw the goodness in me and that gave me the strength that I needed. I love you, Emilio."

 

"I love you too." He said back before the call ended. 

 

As Eve rounded the corner she saw Manfred and Creek kissing passionately. She lightly shook her head and grinned before turned back around the corner to leave the lovebirds alone. 

 

One week later…

 

All of Midnight gathers in the Church to attend Lem and Olivia’s wedding. Emilio stood at the front presiding over the wedding. 

 

"Family isn't always about blood. Family are the people that accept you as you are, without judgement. The people that stand with you in joy and agony. With family, love doesn't come with conditions. Sacrifices are made willingly, if only to spare your loved ones pain. And if your exceptionally lucky, you're born into that. But sometimes not. Sometimes it takes a long time to find that family. Most of us know what it's like to be alone, solitary. But because we know loneliness, we recognize the miracle, the magic, committing to that family, for good or bad, sickness or health, aging and not." Emilio spoke. Those in the crowd chuckled at his joke. 

 

“It’s time to exchange the rings.” He said with a smile. 

 

Olivia took one of the rings out of Emilio hand before saying, “Don't worry. Platinum. Not silver.”

 

They shared a chuckle and Lem exchanged rings with her before they kissed as husband and wife, and never feeling more happier than at that very moment. 

 

At the reception, Eve danced with Emilio and she had a smile on her face. 

 

"I love your dress," Emilio commented.

 

Eve looked down at her red ALC Tracy dress and looked back up at Emilio smiling, "Thanks. Creek and Fiji helped picked it out."

 

"You're welcome." 

 

“You know,” She began, “I never thought I would fall in love with a man of the cloth or a weretiger, for that matter."

 

Emilio chuckled, "Well, life has a funny way of surprising us. I mean I never thought I would fall in love with a strong and beautiful woman." 

 

"There are times when I wondered if it's us or our species since Hexenbiests and felines have a natural affinity for each other." 

 

"Well, then we'll just have to figure that out ourselves." The two then kissed passionately. 

 

Eve then broke from the kiss and said, “I like the idea of that.” before the two continued dancing. 

 

A short while later Olivia announced to the crowd that it was time to throw the bouquet. While most of the women formed a crowd Eve went over to the table to get something to drink. Having noticed this Creek and Manfred walked over to her. 

 

"Hey, Eve what are you doing over here? Shouldn't you be getting ready to catch the bouquet?" Creek asked. 

 

"Yeah, it'd be a fun way to find out if the Rev will propose to you anytime soon." Manfred teased which earned him a hit on the chest from Creek.

 

"I'll pass. And besides, I'll let those crazies tear each other from limb and limb just to find out who's ne--" Eve was then cut off by the bouquet landing in her hands. She looked around and saw everyone looking at her and applauding her. 

 

"Guess your next," Manfred quipped. 

 

The next morning, everyone in midnight was woken up by a great rumble that seemed to shook the entire town. Outside, everyone, Manfred, Creek, Olivia, Eve, Emilio,Joe, Chuy, Fiji, and Bobo leave their homes to investigate and they gather just outside Home Cookin', where a construction crew has convened. 

 

A woman in a red suit walked towards them while saying,”Apologies. A terrible first impression. The trucks weren't supposed to arrive for another day…" Until she was interrupted. 

 

"Who are you?" Olivia demanded

 

"Melanie Pratt," she replied. "I work with Albany Worldwide. We're a hospitality company and the new owners of the Hotel."

 

"Why would you buy the Hotel?" Bobo questioned. 

 

"We're renovating. I mean, it is a historic property." Melanie pratt answered with a wide smile. 

 

"I don't think that's wise," Emilio replied.

 

"Oh, this will completely revitalize Midnight. We'll make this town a destination. We'll get tourists in here from all over. This town has a very colorful history."

 

In that moment, Manfred and Eve look up to one of the windows of the hotel, noticing a spirit banging on the window.

 

“That's one way to put it.” Manfred said


	11. Head games

Eve's face is filled with fear as she slept, her dreams filled with digging holes in the middle of the desert. But it soon turned into a nightmare as she entered every Midnighter's home, woged, and kills them after waking them up to see the fear in their eyes. She walked inside the home of the last Midnighter she had to kill, Emilio. She walks into the bedroom and sees him sleeping peacefully, takes out one of her blades as she walks closer to him. Once she reaches the head of the bed she placed the blade against his throat causing him to wake up she smiles before slitting his throat. 

Eve then shots up straight in bed and was breathing heavily. She looks around and sees that she is in the room that she shares with Emilio. She looks to her left and sees that he isn't there, the feeling of guilt and worry start to weigh heavily on her. 

"Eve, are you alright?" 

She turns her head in the direction of the voice she heard. When she sees that it is Emilio, her guilt and worry leave her conscience. 

"Yeah, yeah, just had a bad dream." She answered. 

"You've been getting a lot of those lately." 

"Well, with Midnight about to become a tourist destination, I would be surprised if I didn't have them." She shot back. 

"True. Do you want me to wait for you and we can go get breakfast?" He asked. 

She shook her head as she got out of bed and walked to him."No, you can go ahead and I'll meet you there. Be sure to save me a seat." 

"I will." He said before they kissed. 

When the kiss ended Emilio left to join the others for breakfast, while Eve went into the bathroom to brush her teeth and take a shower. 

After brushing her teeth and putting the toothbrush away, she felt a very sharp pain on her right temple and as she holds her head as the pain begins to get worse until she woges and then shatters the mirror as she gives a screaming roar, She soon retracts and looks at the mirror shards before her eyes glowed and fixed the mirror, but as she looks at the fixed mirror she notices her nose is bleeding. 

She picks up a towel and cleans it, but when she looks down at the blood, she sees that the blood is black. Her eyes glow purple and the towel burns, and nothing is left behind. Eve then carries on with her morning by taking a shower, getting dressed, and meeting everyone for breakfast at Home Cookin’. When she arrives, she notices that her brother isn't there and assumes that he and Creek are busy with each other, and takes a seat next to Emilio. 

Sometime later Manfred joins them and they continue on with their morning with eating their Breakfast. Eve thinks about what happened in her dream with deep thought, but it soon ends when she hears a whisper and looks around the room. Olivia and Emilio chat over breakfast, Joe and Chuy sit, deep in conversation at the opposite end of the table, while Fiji sits on Bobo's lap as she feeds him, and her brother across from her. She hears the whisper saying that she should kill them because it would only be a matter of time before they kill her. Eve then reaches down to her ankle to grab a blade she had hidden, but she stopped when she heard someone asks, "Eve, are you alright?" 

She looks up and sees Emilio, who placed his hand on her shoulder and sit back up. 

"Yeah, I-I'm fine. Thought I dropped something for a moment." She replied. They then carried on with their breakfast. 

“Mmm. It's not nearly as good as Madonna's.” Emilio commented on the food. 

 

“I know.” Olivia agreed. “I hope she's having fun on her cruise while we all starve.” 

“That's like a hockey puck.” Emilio joked. 

When breakfast ended, Olivia gets up from her seat and shuts the doors to the Midnighters room, “Hate to disrupt our tasty breakfast. But we have business to discuss.”

Olivia goes back to her seat and pulls out her computer. Everyone gathers around her and her computer as she relays all the information she's dug up on the new owners and renovation. 

“Dug up some information on the hotel renovation. Not sure why the cone of silence, but they didn't have a website until yesterday. And now it's some sort of spa retreat thing called--” 

“Crystal Desert.” Fiji interrupted Olivia with frustration, “That is my territory.”

“Sorry, Fij. And get this. They're fully booked for the next month.” She added.

“Why so suspicious?” Bobo asked. 

“Have you met Olivia?” Fiji told him. 

“Why would anyone wanna visit Midnight?” Joe asked. “I mean, it's not exactly a tourist destination.”

 

“Because of him.” Olivia pulls up a picture,” Healer Kai. Has a huge following of the desperate and delusional.”

“Well, if it quacks like a cult,” Bobo commented 

“How do you know he's not legit?” Emilio asked. 

“He's wearing Lululemon.” Olivia then noticed Manfred spacing out and asked, “You okay? You're quiet.” 

“Uh, I haven't been sleeping well.” He answered, “But don't worry about the hotel. It'll be out of business in three months tops.” They all look on in silence, wondering just what he means.” Ghosts. Me and Eve saw them when they started the renovation.”

“He’s right. Haunted hotels aren’t rated well on Yelp.” Eve added. 

“Yeah, well, ghosts or not, the eight of us are going to that grand opening,” Olivia said to them. 

Manfred pulled out his phone and said, "I gotta go to Dallas for a reading. Probably be back later today." 

"Alright, I'll go pack the Kit, and we can leave," Eve said

"Act-Actually Eve, I-I'm gonna do this alone." 

"Are you sure, Manny?" Eve questions, "The last time you went solo, you ended up getting possessed for almost 2 days, and I by the time I found you were chasing a deer and saying that you were a deer too," Everyone looks at Eve in silence, "The spirit had mental health issues when he was alive." 

"I'll be fine Eve it's just a regular routine reading. And if anything goes wrong, I'll let you know. I promise.” 

Eve nods her head letting Manfred know that he can go and leave for Dallas. A while later and everyone heads home and prepares for the grand opening of the crystal desert. As Emilio and Eve walked back to their home, Eve questions why her brother wanted go to Dallas alone.

"It just doesn't make any sense." She said, "I don't understand why Manny wants to go solo, and he's even insisted that I join him to make sure he won't do anything crazy if he gets possessed." 

"I don't know, but I know that he will tell you in time," Emilio said in a calm voice. 

"I hope so." Eve turns to him," But in the meantime, let's go to the church, get our work done and then go home, relax while we can and prepare ourselves for tomorrow." She kisses him.

"That's a wonderful idea." He kisses her before they finish their walk to the church. 

The next day, the Midnighters meet up as per Olivia's demands. They watch as Hipsters flock Crystal Desert for its grand opening. 

“Hipsters. In Midnight.” Fiji said with displeasement. 

“And I thought Colconnar was bad.” Olivia voiced her thought. 

“Let's try and keep an open mind.” Emilio reminded them. As they walk through the build, Emilio stops and asks,”Feel that?”

“The breeze, or the pretension?” Olivia asked. 

“The energy. It's incredible.” He commented. 

Fiji wanders over to a table with crystals she picks up a jar with crystals in it and her eyes widen in shock at the price of one of them, "Are you kidding me?" 

The others walk over to her to find out what is wrong. 

"They're charging ten times what I do." 

A woman approaches “You're in the crystal business, too?” she asked Fiji. 

“No. Yep. What? I'm, uh” Fiji stumbles before Creek saves her. 

“Fiji owns The Inquiring Mind. Hi, I'm Creek, by the way.” She introduced herself before introducing the others, “Oh. This is Olivia, Eve, and the Reverend Emilio Sheehan.”

“Please, call me Rev.” Emilio said. 

 

“Hello. I'm Patience Lucero.” Patience introduced, “ My husband Kai and I own the hotel. Y'all are very lucky. Midnight is a special place.”

“Oh, yes, it is. You know, I'm just curious. Why here? Sleepy little town, no freeway exit. It seems like an odd place to buy a hotel.” Olivia questioned Patience. 

“To be honest, darling, before this we kind of functioned as a traveling circus. Going from town to town. Healing people. But it was exhausting. Not to mention draining on Kai. So we decided that we needed to find a spiritual center that we could call home.” She explained 

“Rent too high in Sedona?” Fiji quips as she turns the jar back over. 

“Or Lilydale or Glastonbury?.” Eve added. 

“None of those places hold a candle to the energy in Midnight.” Patience comments. 

“You're not wrong there.” Eve agreed with Patience. 

Eve looks over to Manfred and sees that he is just mindlessly staring at the impluvium. As Emilio approaches him, she soons hears the voices again and they take over her thoughts. The next thing she sees is her brother lunging at Emilio and forces him, head first, into the impluvium. While others gasp in shock and try to help Emilio, Eve just stands there and drinks her champagne.Emilio struggles to be released but he's unable to free himself until he drowns in the shallow pool.

A bell rings in the distance, bringing Eve back to reality. Eve joins emilio, Creek, and others as the approach Manfred.

“Uh, I gotta get out of here. Work.” Manfred said before leaving but Eve couldn’t help but feel as if something was wrong. 

The striking of a gong pulls her out of her thoughts. Everyone watches as two women usher in, who she can only assume is Patience’s husband, Kai Lucero. He stops just shy of the impluvium before taking a step onto the water, literally walking on top of it. 

As the crowd murmurs in awe, Fiji immediately dismisses it, "Hidden platform," she muses. 

“Welcome. And thank you, all of you, for coming.” Kai bids them. “Today's It's truly an astonishing day. This is the realization of a lifelong dream. A dream of of helping people.” 

Before he's able to continue. A paraplegic man in a wheelchair interrupts him,”Make me walk, please. My daughter's getting married next month. To walk her down the aisle, I'd give anything.”

Patience stops him,”I'm sorry, sir. Um, we'd be happy to schedule you an appointment later - in the week, but-”

Kai stops her, “Patience, Patience, it's All right, it's all right. Enter the pool. No, out of your chair and on your own.”

the man pulls up his legs and falls onto the cushions that line the impluvium. He drags himself into the pool of water. Kai cradles him and lays a hand over his leg. 

“Do you believe?” Kai asks the man. 

“Yes, I do.” He answered. 

Kai leans in close to the man, close as if going to kiss the man or to take in his breath. “ All right, now get up” He commands the man. The man stands and is able to walk again. The crowd is overjoyed, though Olivia, Fiji, and Eve are not. 

Night falls and the Midnighters head to the Cartoon Saloon to wind down. Bobo, the new owner, Joe and Eve, the new bartenders, man the bar, serving patrons their drinks. 

“Hey, you're a natural.” Bobo commented Joe. 

“Heh, yeah. Bartending suits me. At least until I figure out what I wanna do for the next 1,000 years.” Joe then looks over at Eve as she makes the drinks, “Your pretty good at this Eve.” 

“Thanks”, She said, “I was a bartender at this club in L.A for almost five years.” 

A raucous drunk patron grabs a hold of a female patron. she tells him to stop, garnering the attention of Bobo. He calls out to Lem and nods towards the drunk and for him to handle it. He does so, grabbing the drunk by the collar and forces him out. 

Eve joins Olivia and Chuy at there for her break and they began talking about Kai. 

“Chuy, he's a con man.” Olivia told him, “ And that guy in the wheelchair, he's obviously a paid actor. It's the oldest trick in the book.”

“So he's a con man. But maybe he's a harmless one.” Chuy reasoned. 

“Uh, no such thing.” Olivia scoffs, “People don't just settle down in Midnight. They come here when they're running from someone or they got something to hide.”

 

“What about you Eve what do you think about Kai?” He asked. 

“Well, I’ve dealt with a lot of con men and so far Kai is acting like them but as he healed that guy in the wheelchair i couldn't help but feel something in the air as he did it.” Eve answered. 

A while later Eve sees her brother walk out of the bar she stops and thinks why he’s been acting weird lately but with her break over she returns back to work. As Eve pours drinks she couldn't help but notice a familiar face was walking to her. 

“So, what brings a holy man like yourself to a place like this?” Eve asked Emilio with humor.

“I heard that the Cartoon Saloon had a beautiful bartender and i had to see if it was true.” He answered with a smiled. They reached over the bar and kissed. 

“My shift ends in a few minutes, but in the meantime what’s your poison?” 

“I’ll have water for now.” 

“Sure thing, but if you want to pay extra you can have holy water.” Eve joked, which Emilio responded with a look,” Come on, do you know how long it has been since a holy man has gone into a bar that i work at.” She explained, “I wonder why Manny has been acting weird lately, I mean I can let him going to Dallas alone slide but him acting weird at the Crystal Desert. I just have this bad feeling that something is going on and he just won't tell anyone." 

Emilio took Eve's hand in his and said, "He will tell us when he is ready, we just have to be patient. 

"Maybe your right." She looks at the clock, "I just a few more minutes then we can leave, why don't you go hang with Olivia and Chuy, right over there, their talking about Kai." 

"See you after your shift," Emilio says before kissing her and sitting down with Olivia and Chuy. 

After her shift ended, Emilio and Eve returned to their home and went to bed. While Eve slept, Emilio went into her trailer and looked at a labrys before walking back to the house and into their bedroom with it. As she slept, Eve couldn't help but get this feeling that she was being watched, she opened her eyes and saw Emilio standing in front of her with the labrys in his hand. 

"Your kind must be ridden of," Emilio said with disgust. 

Before Eve could say anything the labrys had swung down and decapitated her. Eve then shots up straight in bed breathing heavily. Her hands went up and felt her neck. After a moment she calms down and looks to her right and sees Emilio asleep. She then looks out the window and it’s still dark she then looks at her phone and sees that it is only 5:48, but she gets out of bed and goes to brush her teeth and take a shower. 

After she brushed her teeth and put the toothbrush and toothpaste, she looks in the mirror and sees that black blood is coming from her nose. She cleans it off and destroys the towel before there was a knock on the door. Eve opens the door and sees Emilio.

"Good morning, Why are up this early ?" She asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Emilio shot back. 

"Touche. Well, I just woke up and didn't feel like going back to sleep, and everything is fine if your wondering." 

"Good, I'm just worried about you." 

"Don't be." She placed a hand on his cheek, "I know that you're worried but you shouldn't be. I am perfectly fine." 

"Alright," He said, "Why don't we go get some breakfast together." 

"I'm sorry, Emilio but I promised Fiji that I get some Caraway from my trailer for her." She lied, "Can I get a rain check?" 

"Sure. See you later," He said before kissing her, "I love you." 

"I love you too. Bye."

When Emilio left, Eve closed the door and got in the shower. Once she was finished and got dressed, she went to her trailer but it wasn't to get something for Fiji, it was to see if she can figure out what was wrong with her. 

Eve opened once of her books and found a potion that can diagnose what was wrong with her. After following the instructions and ingredients all that was left was to had a drop of her blood into the mixture Eve pricked her finger and squeezed the blood into it. After a moment the mixture soon began to sizzle then it drips out of the bottom of the glass beaker and through the table, and the floor, and eventually into the earth. 

To any person who saw this would wonder at what it meant, but to Eve it meant that something was dreadfully wrong with her.

“Well, that’s not a good sign,” She commented. 

Eve then spent the rest of the day looking through her books to find anything that could help her but all she found were hexes, curses, transformation spells, potions, Hexenbiest beauty treatments, etc. Eve then realized that she would need to speak with her Grandfather about this and at that moment she knew that she was really desperate. But just as she was about to contact him, there was a knock at her door she then opened it, and it was Olivia and Manfred. 

“What are you guys doing here?” She asked. 

“Look i don’t have time to explain but i need your help finding Creek.” Manfred answered. 

The three then got in the car and drove out of midnight to find Creek. They drove further in the night to Blanco Canyon in their search for Creek. 

“Okay, tell me what happened again.” Olivia said to Manfred. 

“Uh, we got into a fight and she hitched a ride to Blanco Canyon. She was acting crazy.” He explained. 

“Doesn't sound like Creek.” Olivia commented

“I'm telling you, she's not herself.”

Manfred, Eve, and Olivia make it to the canyon, but Creek's not there. 

“Creek? Where are you? Babe, are you okay?” Manfred calls out

“So she ran away to the middle of nowhere. Doesn't make any sense.” Olivia said her thought aloud.

“Trust me. A lot of what Creek did tonight doesn't make sense. Wait.” He then stops and ask, “Did you hear that?”

Olivia becomes suspicious and pulls out her knife, “What's going on? Where's Creek?” 

“Ooh. Cute knife.” Manfred taunts. 

“It won't be so cute when it crushes your trachea.” Olivia then tries to attack Manfred but before she could Eve knocked her out. 

Eve looked down at the now uncoussis Olivia and said, “That’s for tazzering me, Blondie.” Before looking up at her brother. 

“Well, Well, Well, nice to know that i’m not the only one with demonic cancer. So, nice of you to join me, sister dear.” He said as he saw demon blood coming from her nose. 

“Couldn’t let you have all the fun, brother mine.” Eve said before she wiped the blood off. 

Manfred drags Olivia towards one of the grave he's previously dug and kicks her in. Creek's had enough time to get out of the bindings and escape. With Manfred's back to her, she whacks him in the head with a crowbar as he turns around and did the same to Eve, knocking them both out.

“I'm claustrophobic, you dick!” She yelled at him. 

She gets in the car in the hopes of making her escape, though the keys are nowhere to be found. She then, reluctantly, gets out of the car and searches Manfred for the keys. However, he wakes up with the keys in hand, “ Looking for these?” He said. 

He then attacks Creek. He strangles her as she chokes out for him to get off of her. Lemuel arrives just in time to leech Manfred until his unconscious, though he immediately throws up black demonic blood. 

“Thank you. Thank you.” Creek coughed,”How how did you know?”

“Psychic connection.” He answered, “Olivia's in danger.”

“He got Olivia, too?”

“He got lucky.” Olivia clarified as she walked towards them after she got out of the hole. 

Suddenly there was a screaming roar and the all looked to see a woged and angry Eve. She ran at them to attack but Olivia shot at her with a very powerful taser. Eve collapsed to her knees as she convulsed before passing out on the ground. 

Lem then picked up Manfred and Eve and placed them in the car. While Creek and Olivia drove back in the car, He ran back to warn Fiji to prepare. 

Back at Midnight Pawn, Manfred and Eve are bound to chairs as Fiji attempts to cast out whatever is controlling Manfred. Bobo, Lemuel, Creek, Olivia, Joe, and Chuy watch as their friends suffer and bleeds black from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. 

“Any fowl or evil force may now and forever return to its source.” Fiji chanted but it didn’t have any effect. 

“Witch!” Eve and Manfred shouted as they tried to lunge at her. 

“Uh, you don't know any other spells?” Bobo asked. 

“There's not really a spell for this.” She answered, “Uh, I wouldn't have even recognized it as demon residue if it wasn't for Colconnar. I could research. But that would take time.”

 

“We don't have time. Look at them.” Olivia said pointing at them 

 

“Manfred. Manfred. If you're in there at all, I just want you to know that I love you.” Creek said as she kneeled down to him. 

“You have to kill me. Do it. Before I kill you. Please.”Manfred said before shouting in a demonic voice,” Kill me! Now! Now! Now!” causing Creek to jump back in terror. 

“No one's killing anyone.” Emilio announced as he walked in with Kai and Patience. 

“What are they doing here?” Olivia questioned. 

“I can help.” Kai told them 

 

“Don't tell me you drank the Kool-Aid.” She said to Emilio

“I know you have doubts. But when I walked into Crystal Desert, I sensed it was a special place, that Kai was special. I just believed, and I think with an open mind, you can too. And I would do anything to ensure Eve will live.” He explained. 

“You have no idea what you're dealing with.” Lemuel warned Kai 

“And you have no idea what I've dealt with.” He states, “Your friends are afflicted. And I'm afraid if I don't step in, they may die.”He then turns to Eve and said, “Let me help you.” as he approached her. 

“No, Help Manny!” Eve demanded,“ He’s human, I’m not. I can hold on a little longer, he can’t.”

Kai turned to the others and told them, “This is a good sign. She’s fighting the evil.” 

He approaches Manfred and grabs his forehead.”Be at peace. Be at peace, brother.” He commands.

 

He approaches Manfred and grabs his forehead. He commands him to be a peace. Manfred grows still until he vomits up black, demonic residue. Kai leans in and kisses Manfred, drawing out the remnants of the demonic residue. Kai collapses on the floor and coughs up the demonic residue. 

“Oh, baby, you okay?” Patience said as she rubbed his back. 

“And so it is done.” He said before standing up, “Now to help her.” 

 

“Yeah, about that,” Eve then breaks free of her bindings, pulls out the blade she had hidden at her ankle, and holds it at them, “I’ve changed my mind.” 

“Eve, you have to let him help you.” Emilio tried to reason. 

“Not gonna happen,” She shot back,”His kind are all the same.” 

 

“And what kind would that be?” Kai asked calmly. 

“Parasites. All your kind does it take from people.” Eve answered

“You speak from experience.” 

“In a way. I spent almost five hundred thousand dollars to any healer i could find, real or not, I was desperate.”

“Why?”

“His name was Tommy and we were briefly engaged.” she answered. 

“What happened?” 

“We had only been dating almost a year before he proposed. He told me where to meet him and when i got there was candles, yellow rose petals because he knew i loved the wizard of oz when i was a kid. He then got down on one knee and proposed, and like anyone I said “Yes.” But it was what he said when we hugged.”

“What did he say?” 

“He said, “Your grandfather will be so happy about our engagement.” I knew at that moment that he worked for my grandfather and he said that he was sent to find me, gain my trust and make me fall in love with him and bring me back to my grandfather at any cost. I told Tommy that I never go back to my grandfather, but he said I had no choice in the matter. I then woged and so did he into a Zauberbiest. We fought, we each landed a few good punches before we used our powers and when he charged at me I sent him flying back causing him to be impaled on a metal pipe and I killed him." 

“Can you tell us what happened after?” 

“I knew that my grandfather would never leave me alone, so after I took care of the body I went to every healer that I could find and told them that I needed to get rid of an evil that was in me but they did nothing to heal me. Another after another and all they did was nothing." 

"What was the evil you wanted to get rid of?" 

"My hexenbiest spirit," Eve answered. "Without it a Hexenbiest becomes human, and I thought that if I got rid of it, then my grandfather would leave me alone. Tommy was the only one who I let into my heart, the only one besides Xylda and Manny but when he betrayed me I put my walls back up, and I've never fully trusted another person since then." 

Kai slowly approaches her, "Eve, I promise that you can trust me." he takes her hand and lowers it, "You need to be at peace." 

Kai places his hand on her forehead and commands her to be at peace. Eve then collapses on the ground and seizes until she becomes still then suddenly she vomits black, demonic residue. Afterward, Eve loses consciousness and passes out. Kai leans in and kisses Eve, drawing out the remnants of the demonic residue. Kai collapses to her and coughs up the demonic residue. 

While Patience helps Kai up, Eve still remained unconscious. As Emilio kneeled down by Eve's side and crateled her, the others released Manfred from his bindings. Suddenly Eve woged and gasped for air as she woke up. After a moment Eve retracted and Emilio helped her up off the floor. Manfred and Eve then proceed to clean up and up their mouths. 

“I don't know what to say. Or how to thank you. I mean, we were gonna die. And you saved our lives, and theirs.” Manfred said to Kai.

“Well, you let us help, and that's thanks enough.” Kai said. 

“Kai's right.” Patience agreed, “We're just happy to be a part of Midnight and call this place our home.”

“Well, you earned it.” Eve said, “And as much as I hate to admit it your the real deal.” 

“You guys, I put you all in danger.” Manfred told the Midnighters.” I lied to you. I betrayed your trust.”

“Which took us so long to earn but we didn’t want to mess it up.” Eve added, “And if you don’t want to talk to either of us again, we understand.”

“Manfred. Eve. You're not to blame. Neither of you weren't exactly yourself.” Joe said. 

“Trust me. I understand.” Chuy told them.

“We don't deserve your forgiveness.” 

“The only reason this happened is because you tried to save us from Colconnar.” Fiji told Manfred and Eve. “Just next time, just you come to us.”

“No next time, please.” Manfred said. Fiji held up her hands.

Manfred looked around the room and said,“Where did Creek go?” He then rushes off. 

“Hey, um, Emilio could we go home?” Eve asked.

“Of course we can.” He answered, “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, I just want to go home.” She answered, her voice filled with exhaustion.

The two left the pawn shop and returned to their home. Once they had gotten home, Eve changed into her pajamas and got into the bed, Emilio soon joined her and held her close as they slept.


End file.
